Once again, the Bradley track and field team did not disappoint at the Iowa State Classic last weekend.
The meet pitted the Braves against major conferences and other schools from the Missouri Valley Conference.
On Friday, seniors Kristen Busch and Caitlin Busch broke the previous school record in the women’s 5,000 meters, finishing in the top two in the MVC this season.
The pair topped the previous school record of 16:35.05 set by Kristen at the 2014 MVC Indoor Championship. Kristen was seventh overall at 16:11.29 in Friday night’s race to edge out Caitlin, who was less than one second behind in eighth at 16:12.18.
In the men’s 5,000-meters, junior Patrick Campbell was sixth in his heat with a career-best time of 14:22.32, which was 11 seconds off school-record pace.
In addition to Campbell, junior Caleb Beck took eighth in the same 5,000 meter heat, and his career-best time of 14:23.13 is now third all-time at Bradley.
Sophomore Michael Ward shaved almost five seconds off his own school record in the men’s 3,000-meters, which was set last February. His time of 8:05.66 was good for 16th overall, while senior Chase Coffey was just two one-hundredths of a second behind in 17th overall at 8:05.68 to improve his prior career-best time set earlier this season by 12 seconds.
On Saturday, junior Rachel Sudbury turned in the top mile time at Bradley, with a career-best effort of 4:51.74. That mile was the school’s best performance since Mary Goldkamp set the school record of 4:43.70 in 2011. Sudbury was 20th overall, took three seconds off her career-best time and turned in the third best time in school history.
Junior Mike Bianchina highlighted the men’s mile for the Braves with a career-best 4:08.79. Bianchina’s time ranked third in school history.
Head coach Darren Gauson said he was impressed with the team’s overall performance at the Iowa State Classic, and he hopes the momentum will continue for the rest of the season.
“We had outstanding performances at Iowa State,” Gauson said. “We want to keep the momentum for the EIU Friday Night Special and, hopefully into the MVC Championships.”
