PEORIA, Ill. -- Two weeks removed from strong efforts at the 2011 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships, the Bradley men's and women's cross country squads take to the course one more time for Saturday's NCAA Midwest Regional in DeKalb, Ill.
The men's 10K race is scheduled to start at noon with the women's 6K slated to begin at 1:15 p.m. at the NIU North 40.
"We are looking forward to building on last year's finishes on both sides," Bradley cross country/track & field head coach Marc Burns said. "Our goal as a program is to develop into a national-level team and we need to learn how to be ready to compete this time of year. Our men had one of the best workouts of the year last week and the women continue to look stronger each week. We will be ready for a big emotional effort."
The women's team is coming off a third-place finish at the MVC Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., and enter Saturday's NCAA Midwest Regional ranked 15th in the Midwest Region according to the latest USTFCCCA regional poll. Freshman Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) placed seventh at the MVC Championship to join Angie Zimmerman (1997) and Nicole Benson (2009) as the only freshmen in school history to earn All-Missouri Valley Conference honors.
Fellow freshmen Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) and Molly Dahlquist (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame) have been among BU's leaders throughout their rookie campaigns as the Braves have been paced by an underclassmen in every race this fall. Sophomore Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) garnered MVC Scholar-Athlete honors after a 14th-place showing at the Valley championship.
Freshman Marshall Moyer (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington) has been the top finisher for the men's team in four of his five races and missed a top-20 finish at the conference championship by 22 seconds. Moyer helped the Bradley men to a seventh-place finish at the conference meet and is expected to be joined by sophomore Nathan Davis (Lewistown, Ill./Lewistown) and junior Jon Richards (Streator, Ill./Streator) near the top of the BU lineup.
The women's team finished 18th at last year's NCAA Midwest Regional at Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Ill., while the men's team is looking to build on last season's 19th-place showing.
The top two teams and four individuals from each race will advance to the NCAA Championship, Nov. 21 in Terre Haute, Ind. The Midwest Regional is made up of 33 Division I schools from the states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota. The men's race includes two of the top five teams from the latest USTFCCCA top 25 and a total of four nationally ranked squads.
