ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The Bradley women's cross country team was picked to finish fourth and the men's squad was tabbed for a sixth-place finish in this week's State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships according to a pre-championship poll of Valley coaches.
The Braves return to the site of their season-opening race as they head to the RAFT Golf Course in Augusta, Kan. Championship host Wichita State is the favorite in the women's 5K which will start at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, while Indiana State is the pick to win the men's 8K race which is slated for an 11:30 a.m. start.
"We are looking forward to putting together our best efforts of the season this weekend," Bradley head coach Marc Burns said. "It is the time of year where good things happen to the teams that are ready to go both mentally and physically. We believe that we are ready to battle. Our women are picked fourth and there are some good teams ahead of us and behind us in the rankings. It is our goal to go after those teams ahead of us. On the men's side there appears to be a good sized gap between 4-5 and 6-7 in the polls. We like being the underdogs and our guys are ready to apply some pressure to those teams ranked ahead of us. A strong weekend for us would be to finish right at our projections. We are looking for something special and feel we are ready to outperform the polls."
Senior Mary Goldkamp (Florissant, Mo./McCluer North) is expected to lead the women's team after finishing fifth at the 2009 State Farm MVC Championship in Peoria as a junior. Goldkamp's 5K time of 17:48 is the fourth best time in the Missouri Valley Conference this season and ranks as the fourth fastest 5K time in school history.
Freshman Whitney Schumcacher (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) clocked a season-best 5K time of 18:35 at the Illinois Intercollegiate Championships in Normal back in mid-September and has been one of the Braves top performers this season, while follow freshman Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) has also had a strong rookie season and is coming off a 23rd-place finish at the Bradley Classic, where she turned in a season-best 6K time of 22:11.
Senior Lauren Fog (Harvard, Ill./Harvard) owns the fourth-best 5K time on the team at 19:20 and sophomore Emily Gustafson (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria), who finished 11th at last year's MVC Championship at Newman Golf Course, has the fifth-best time for BU at 19:25.
While the women's team has relied on some of its younger members, the men's squad has relied on its senior leadership in 2010. Senior Andrew Weiser (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) has paced the Braves in each of his four races this season and set a career-best 8K time of 25:24 earlier this month at the Bradley Classic.
Four of BU's top six times this season have been clocked by seniors and five of Bradley's top seven performances are by upperclassmen in 2010. Senior Zach Bowling (Heyworth, Ill./Heyworth/Danville Area C.C.) is also coming off a career-best 8K performance, finishing 11 seconds behind Weiser at 25:35 at the Bradley Classic. Fellow senior Brian Tyne (Polo, Ill./Polo) turned in a career-best time of 25:56 at the Bradley Classic, while freshman Thomas Harayda (Peoria, Ill./Richwoods) is fourth on the team with a season-best time of 26:04. Sophomore Jon Richards (Streator, Ill./Streator) is also likely to come into play in the scoring, ranking fifth on the team with a time of 26:16.
Following Saturday's MVC Championship, both teams will have a week off before returning to competition Saturday, Nov. 13 when Bradley serves as host for the NCAA Midwest Cross Country Regional at Newman Golf Course.
