Junior Michael Ward capped off his 2016 campaign with a 71st place finish in the NCAA national championship meet Nov. 19 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Ward crossed the finish line in 30:41.9, which was more than eight seconds slower than his time in the NCAA regional meet.
The longer time resulted from a fall near the 1K mark, forcing Ward to make up for lost time. After recovering from the fall, Ward said he still wasn’t extremely pleased with the results.
“As soon as I had finished, I was overwhelmed,” Ward said. “After composing myself and seeing the results, I was disappointed. I think that the result didn’t justify the fitness that I had going into the race. Now, I am pleased that I was able to experience and represent Bradley at a race of that caliber.”
In the end, head coach Darren Gauson said Ward ran well on the national stage.
“I thought he had a good performance,” Gauson said. “It was windy and the temperature had dropped [from the day before], so the race as a whole was a lot slower and more tactical, and people were bunched together. [Ward] got knocked down, and he was able to get up and maybe used a little too much energy to get back into the right position … It was still a very good performance.”
Ward is the first Brave to compete in the NCAA championship in school history. Though the finish wasn’t exactly what he wanted, the race allowed him and Gauson to experience a national championship environment.
“The whole build up [to the championship] is a big deal,” Gauson said. “Like any Division I championship, there’s a lot of media and spectators … It’s a huge occasion and bigger than any race he’s ran in before – It’s a big deal.”
Ward was the star of the team this year, but because of the strong recruiting class Gauson has planned, the head coach said Ward might not run next season and could be redshirted.
By sitting the team’s best runner, the idea may seem counterintuitive to winning. However, Gauson said he believes with the talent and depth that will be on the team next year, they will be able to win in 2017 no matter what. In the end, Gauson said he envisions a group that could be a top-15 team in the nation for the 2018 season.
“For some people, it takes a little bit of time to develop that talent,” Gauson said. “We’re trying to be strategic in who we run. We’re going to be very strong on a conference level with or without [Ward]. Our big goal is getting a team to a national championship, and not just get there, but do well when we get there.”
Gauson said he and Ward have talked about the prospect of this happening. Luckily for Gauson, he has the ability to wait until right before the first cross country meet to make a decision about who to run and who to redshirt.
Until then, Ward and the rest of the Braves will have the indoor and outdoor track season to focus on. Ward said he hopes to “transfer his success” from the cross country season into the track season, which officially begins Jan. 14 in Champaign.
