AMES, Iowa -- Junior Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) broke her own school record in the women's 6K and sophomore Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) joined her on the all-region team as the duo helped the Bradley women's cross country team to a seventh-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional Friday afternoon.
McMahon topped her own school record by one second, finishing 15th overall at 20:52.9 to garner all-region honors for the second consecutive year. Her time was 12 seconds out of the top 10 and less than 19 seconds from earning an automatic spot in next week's NCAA Championship. McMahon's 15th-place finish was the best by a Bradley runner at an NCAA Regional since Tam Hart (12th) and Teresa Caplinger (15th) helped pace the Braves to a fourth-place showing in 2002.
Busch also topped her previous career-best and joined McMahon as the only individuals in program history to break 21 minutes in a 6K. Her time of 20:55.7 was four seconds better than her previous career-best and helped her earn a spot on the all-region team with her 17th-place finish.
The duo helped Bradley finish seventh in the field with 265 points as the Braves were just four points back of sixth-place Missouri (261) and 47 points out of the top five. Host Iowa State had five of the top 13 individuals and claimed the regional title with 39 points. Minnesota was second at 59 points, while Oklahoma State rounded out the top three at 192 points.
"Our women have been ranked in the top seven in the region since September,” said Bradley head coach Marc Burns. “It is great to see them finish the year in seventh and it shows that we are close to being a team that can contend for an NCAA berth in the near future. Mac (McMahon) and Kristen (Busch) ran really well today. We are so excited to have two Braves earn all-region honors. Everyone that ran in the post season for us this year will be back next year. We will be really tough next year. This is a team that beat SMU at Notre Dame earlier in the year and they just automatically qualified for the NCAA meet by finishing second in the South Central Region this afternoon. It will be fun to see how this team progresses in the next year."
Junior Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) crossed the line in 75th with a time 21:51.5 and sophomore Caitlin Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) narrowly missed posting a career-best time at 21:54.8 to finish 81st. Sophomore Lauren Houmes (Hoopeston, Ill./Hoopeston) closed out the scoring for the Braves in 83rd with a career-best 6K effort of 21:55.9.
Bradley finished five points ahead of Illinois (8th - 270) and the Braves were 10 points better than ninth-place Northwestern (275 points).
