Taylor Floyd Mews Earns NCAA Bid

Missouri Valley Conference

Men's Cross Country 11/10/2017 4:08:00 PM

Ames, Iowa – Taylor Floyd Mews will continue his cross country career as the Bradley senior earned an automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championship next weekend, placing sixth at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday.

Floyd Mews ran the course at Iowa State in a time of 29:17.19 to post the highest finish in school history at the regional meet. The senior joins Michael Ward as the only two Braves to qualify for the NCAA Championship as Ward owned the previous BU record with a ninth-place finish a year ago to earn the school's first bid.

Overall, Bradley placed two runners in the top-10 for the first time in school history – becoming the first school in the Missouri Valley Conference since at least 2000 to feature two top-10 runners at the regional meet. The 2017 MVC Champion, sophomore Jake Hoffert placed ninth in the Midwest by running the course in 29:19.17. Hofert can still earn a bid for the national championship when the full field is unveiled on Saturday.

Overall, Floyd Mews and Hoffert were both named to the All-Midwest Region Team as the school placed sixth of 28 schools – just one shy of the best team finish in school history, set last season.

"It was great to see Taylor rebound," said Bradley head coach Darren Gauson. "He was real sick at the MVC Championship but pulled through there to help us to the title and then ran really strong today. You could tell he really wanted that individual spot and it was great to see him qualify. As a team, we had a really outstanding run and came close to Minnesota, who was ranked for most of the year. Overall, just a really outstanding job by the men today."

Senior Nyle Clinton placed 35th in 29:57.88, while senior Nikolas Hess followed in 53rd in 30:11.14 and freshman Alec Danner was 58th in 30:17.66.

The Bradley women matched the men's team with a sixth-place finish on Friday, improving their placement by nine spots from a season ago.

Sophomore McKenzie Altmayer led the way as three Braves placed in the top 50. Altmayer ran the course in a time 21:03 to finish 34th overall and was closely followed by senior Hannah Witczak in 39th with a time of 21:08 and senior Natalie Burant in 43rd with a mark of 21:10.

Junior Sara Piller and sophomore Kirstin Oakley rounded out the scoring for the Braves by placing 69th and 86th, respectively.

"Our women came into the meet ranked sixth and finished sixth," Gauson said. "We ran well as a group. We didn't start out the way we wanted to and were behind the pack but show a lot of mental toughness to pull through and close really well. Our goal in the beginning of the year was an MVC Championship and a top-seven finish at regionals so I'm really proud that we accomplished what we set out to do. Overall, both teams were excellent today with a lot of really good performances."

The Braves now await Saturday's decision to see if any other runners will join Floyd Mews at the NCAA Championship, which is set for Saturday, Nov. 18 at Louisville.

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