TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Both the men's and women's cross country teams turned in their best conference finish since 2009, with the women's team taking third and the men's squad placing seventh at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships Sunday morning at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
Freshman Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) finished seventh in the women's 5K to earn all-conference honors and help lead her team to a third-place finish with 91 points. Bradley finished 47 points behind team champion Illinois State and 37 points back of second-place finisher Wichita State in the team standings.
McMahon joins Angie Zimmerman (1997) and Nicole Benson (2009) as the only freshmen in school history to earn all-conference honors after turning in the third best finish by a BU frosh at the MVC Championship.
She was followed by a trio of Braves, led by freshman Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin), who crossed the line at 18:26 in 12th. Delvo's 12th-place finish is the fifth best showing by a Bradley freshman and she was followed by freshman Molly Dahlquist (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame) in 13th (18:27) and sophomore Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) in 14th (18:29).
Freshman Kyela Specht (Munster, Ind./Munster) rounded out the scoring for the women's team in 45th, clocking a season-best 5K time of 19:21.
"Our women came up big today," said Bradley cross country/track & field head coach Marc Burns. "They ran a perfect race and we are really proud of them. Our top four run in 10th to 15th place from the mile on and it looked even more impressive because there were together the whole way. Everyone followed the race plan perfectly and it turned out being enough for third place. We are thrilled but now look ahead to filling our emotional tanks for another big effort at the regional meet in two weeks."
On the men's side, the Braves were seventh in the team standings with 177 points, behind sixth-place Evansville (156) and fifth-place Illinois State (144).
Freshman Marshall Moyer (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington) paced the men's team for the fourth time this fall with a time of 26:19.5 in the 8K, missing the top 20 by 22 seconds. Sophomore Nathan Davis (Lewistown, Ill./Lewistown) was just three seconds behind Moyer in 31st (26:22.9), while junior Jon Richards (Streator, Ill./Streator) was 12 seconds off Moyer's pace in 37th at 26:31.8.
Freshman Eric Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) finished 40th in the field with a time of 26:42.0 to edge junior Nick Skromme (Ottawa, Ill./Marquette) by six seconds. Skromme completed the scoring for BU with a time of 26:48.1.
"The men ran tough today," added Burns. "We are making progress and it is nice to improve on last year's finish. I know we can continue to improve and don't feel like we hit on all cylinders today. We will continue to work hard and will get the men's team in position to be a factor in the Valley in the near future.
The Bradley men's and women's cross country teams return to action Saturday, Nov. 12 at the NCAA Region V Championship in DeKalb, Ill.
