PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's track and field team looks to build on strong performances over the past few weeks at the 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships, which will be held Saturday and Sunday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
The Braves are looking for a repeat performance from 2012, after finishing seventh with 21 points at last year's indoor championships. The 21-point effort in 2012 was the team's highest point total since earning 22 points at the 2000 MVC Indoor Championship and was the team's highest finish since 1998.
"This is the championship time of the year and whenever there is a MVC title or All-MVC honors up for grabs it gets exciting," said Bradley head coach Marc Burns. "Our women will be battling hard to outperform last year's total. We have overcome some sickness in the last couple of weeks and the team is getting healthy and fired up for action this weekend. Our hope is to see Braves flying down the homestretch in each of our races and battling for points and personal bests."
Sophomore Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) is the most likely candidate to highlight the two-day meet for the Braves, competing in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters. An all-conference performer in the 5,000 meters at last year's MVC Indoor Championship, she is one of four BU runners in the event Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
McMahon clocked a career-best 17:00.52 in the 5,000 meters earlier this month and is looking to join former Bradley All-American Mary Ellen Hill as the only Braves to break 17 minutes.
The 3,000 meters is slated for Saturday at 6 p.m., with McMahon set to pace five other Bradley runners in the field. Her times in both the 3,000 and 5,000 meters rank third in the Valley this season. Junior Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) is one of four Braves entered in both races and could challenge her career-best 3,000 meter time of 10:06.57 set last year.
Helping highlight Saturday's competition will be the 800 meters, which is scheduled for 4 p.m. Freshman Rachel Sudbury (Tomahawk, Wis./Tomahawk) owns the eighth-best time in the Valley this season at 2:14.79 and is one of seven BU runner in the field. Her time is fifth among Bradley career-best marks. Sophomore Hannah Booker's (Tremont, Ill./Tremont) career-best time of 2:14.93 is sixth among Bradley career times and 10th in the MVC this winter.
Sunday's action starts at 1:45 p.m. with eight Bradley entries in the mile. Fresh off last week's win in the mile at the Iowa Invitational, sophomore Taylor Johnson (Lincoln, Neb./Southeast) will be joined near the front of the pack by freshman Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg), who ran a team-best 5:02.87 at Iowa State two weeks ago.
The weekend's activities are scheduled to start with the 60-meter dash Saturday at 3 p.m. Sophomore Dana Markech (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) is coming off a career-best time in the event at last week's Iowa Invitational and will be joined in the field by freshman Elizabeth Dutcher (Williamston, Mich./Williamston).
The duo will both compete in the 60-meter hurdles Saturday at 3:30 p.m., while Dutcher will also compete in the long jump Saturday at 6:15 p.m. and the 200 meters Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
Bradley will wrap up Saturday's action with the distance medley relay at 7:45 p.m. and conclude the meet Sunday with a team in the 4x400 meter relay at 4:10 p.m.
