Bradley cross country swept the men’s and women’s dual meets at the 28th Bradley Intercollegiate at Detweiller Park.
Twins Kristin and Caitlin Busch paced the women’s team, finishing first and second, respectively, by four seconds over Maria Baldwin of Eastern Illinois. Coach Willy Wood said that the two of them have met his expectations so far this season.
“They showed me exactly what I thought,” he said. “I think across the board our women [are] very fit right now. They’re very strong and they both look phenomenal. It should be a good year for them.”
The team placed five runners in the top ten overall, en route to beating Chicago State 15-50, Eastern Illinois 26-29 and Western Illinois 15-50.
On the men’s side, the team placed eight runners in the top 10 and swept the first four positions along with five of the first six. Senior Chase Coffey finished one-tenth of a second ahead of teammate Eric Delvo to take home the victory.
The event was a success both in the results and in general. It was the team’s first race in Peoria this season, and it allowed Coach Wood to get to know the community a little bit better.
“I thought it was a great event,” Wood said. “I had never been to Detweiller Park before, so it was awesome to see that. It was fun just having a home meet, I had a chance to meet like 200-300 supporters of the program. We had tons of [families] there, so it was awesome.”
Since Wood’s arrival on the Hilltop, the team’s strategy has shifted to more of a pack mentality, with racers staying close and providing support to each other. Senior Emily Delvo was not necessarily on board with the change, but she sees the merits of pack racing.
“I never did pack running in high school, the first time I tried it was my freshman year here and I thought it was really stupid,” Delvo said. “I was like ‘That’s not a race, you’re running together’ but it actually does help because if you have someone you train with every single day in practice and they’re ahead of you they can pull you along. If you’re ahead of them you can help them.”
The shift in style is not the only change instituted by Wood. Sophomore Patrick Campbell said the way the team works out has changed too.
“Last year, we would be doing a lot harder, more intense workouts earlier in the season and this year I feel like we’re postponing those a little bit,” Campbell said. “This year we ran as a team and took it as more of a workout so we can focus more on the meets later in the year like conference and regionals where it actually counts.”
The team received some acknowledgement from the NCAA earlier this week. The rankings for the Midwest Region came out, and with them came the news that the Bradley women’s team was ranked fifth and the men 11th. The rankings are used to determine who makes the NCAA Championship, as the top two teams get automatic bids to the event.
While Wood was happy to see the team rewarded for its success, he did not put too much stock in the rankings.
“Ultimately the rankings are just somebody’s opinion,” Wood said. “I think both of our teams have the capabilities to be better than that without a doubt…It’s cool to see that people are taking note of the program and that both teams are moving up in the rankings despite the fact that we didn’t really even race that hard.”
