From the beginning of the season, Bradley cross country/track Coach Willy Wood and his team had one goal: win the Missouri Valley Conference championship.
The women’s cross country team did just that last week, led by junior Caitlin Busch, who in doing so became the first Bradley runner to win the individual title since 1999.
Busch’s time of 17:04.43 not only won her the race by three-and-a-half seconds, but it also broke Bradley’s school record of 17:08 set in 1998.
The Braves had three of the top five and four of the top 11 finishers at the event. Emily Delvo, a senior, finished fourth and in the process earned all-conference honors. Delvo crossed the line just three seconds ahead of teammate Kristen Busch, who set a career-fast time of 17:15.78.
Busch was also named to the all-Missouri Valley Conference team, the third Brave to earn that honor. A fourth Bradley runner, senior Rosie Hiles, missed a top-ten finish by just four seconds and was named an honorable mention.
The group of Braves at the front of the pack was not a coincidence. Wood said the team planned to run together as a group, and the runners executed that plan to perfection.
“They ran selflessly,” Wood said. “We decided to come up with a race strategy that was going to be best for the team, they adhered to it and ran perfectly.”
Despite the fact that the Braves have not had an individual MVC champion in nearly two decades, Wood said Busch’s performance, while expected, was not necessarily what the team was shooting for.
“I don’t even know what to say, it was an outstanding performance,” Wood said. “It wasn’t our goal necessarily to have an individual champion, we wanted to win as a team and didn’t want to sacrifice that, but we thought we’d definitely have someone win for sure.”
The men finished third at the meet behind host Southern Illinois and Indiana State, which tied for Bradley’s best-ever performance in the MVC Championship meet.
Eric Delvo finished fifth and became the fourth two-time all-MVC runner in school history. The senior was also the first Brave to finish in the top five of the meet since 1983.
Fellow senior Chase Coffey finished 11th, earning honorable mention all-MVC honors and setting a personal record in the process.
Wood called out both seniors, saying they were crucial in the transition of the program from when they joined the Hilltop to what it is now.
They are two guys who are directly responsible for the direction of this program,” Wood said. “They said their freshman year they finished eighth or ninth in the conference. I think they’re a little disappointed that we didn’t win.”
For the team’s performance, Wood was named the MVC Coach of the Year, an award he said he does not put too much stock into.
“I think it’s just a reflection of what the kids do; it’s not like I raced or anything like that,” Wood said. “It’s just a cool thing I got because they ran really fast.”
The teams have the weekend off before the NCAA Midwest Regionals, hosted by Bradley at the Newman Golf Course at noon Nov. 14. Wood said the Braves still are not quite where they want to be and can still get better.
“I think the next step for us to grow as a program is to stop comparing ourselves to the past and start comparing ourselves to other people, and I think everybody’s fully on board with that,” Wood said.
