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Track team impresses in pair of meets

The Bradley men’s and women’s track team continued their successful season as the Braves took home multiple titles and top finishes at Eastern Illinois and Norte Dame last weekend.

First came the Friday Night Special at Eastern Illinois University, where most of the team competed. Titles for the men came from sophomore Scott Seymour, who finished first in the 600 meter run, sophomore Nick Porter, who finished first in the 800 meter run and freshman Matt Aho, who won the 3000 meter run.

Redshirt freshman Michael Hahndorf, sophomore Luke Hoffert and freshman Brayden Huddleson rounded out the top four in the 3000 meter run.

On the women’s side, senior Jennifer Luskan won the 3000 meter run, sophomore Savan Peterson placed second in the 800 meter run and freshman Marta Pescador finished second in the mile.

Head coach Darren Gauson said he was pleased with both teams’ performances at Eastern, but he is turning his focus towards future meets.

“[The meet was] good with a lot of individual wins, but it mainly served as a final tune-up before the MVC Championships next weekend,” Gauson said.

The team then traveled to the University of Notre Dame on Saturday for the Alex Wilson Invitational. Only the distance medley relay team competed, but Gauson said it was easily the highlight of the weekend for the Braves.

The DMR team of senior Taylor FloydMews, junior David Shadid, redshirt freshman Alec Hartman and senior Dan Gagne shattered the Bradley school record by nearly 30 seconds, finishing with a time of 9:32.31. They finished eighth overall in the DMR ahead of six elite teams from Power Five conferences, including Texas A&M, Iowa, Mississippi State, Kansas and Florida State. They ran the 15th best time in the country this year.

“[The time] placed them among the nation’s elite and was by far the best performance of the weekend,” Gauson said.

The Braves now look forward to the upcoming weekend when they will compete in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

“We’re excited to compete and win as many individual championships as possible on both the men’s and women’s side,” Gauson said.

Gagne said the team has high expectations for the conference meet.

“We are trying to win every distance event from 800 meters to 5000 meters this weekend, and we feel it is attainable,” Gagne said. “Everyone is coming into peak shape at the right time, and we have a good chance of scoring over 60 points this weekend, which would be the highest in the history of Bradley.”

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