PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley women's track and field team has a busy weekend on tap as the Braves will be competing at the Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Ind., Saturday, in addition to running at the Iowa Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa, Friday in the final outings before next week's Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships.
After a light week last week, most of the team will be in action this weekend, with Saturday's Alex Wilson Invitational highlighting this week's competition for Bradley. Six Braves will head to South Bend, Ind., with the sophomore duo of Caitlin Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) and Rachel Sudbury (Tomahawk, Wis./Tomahawk) opening the day's events in the mile at noon (CST).
“This is a big weekend for us as we prepare for the MVC Championships next week,” said Bradley head coach Marc Burns. “We no longer have the last chance meet the weekend after conference so this will be the last time to go for a fast time. Next weekend it will be all about competing and place as opposed to running a fast time. The team looks great and is ready to compete this weekend. Our plan is to run huge personal bests and win some races in the process.”
Sudbury owns the top 800 meter time on the squad this season and will be running the mile for the first time this season. Busch looks to challenge her career-best time in the mile of 5:06.02 after clocking a 5:06.12 at the Indiana Relays earlier this season.
Saturday's competition will also include junior Kyela Specht (Munster, Ind./Munster) and sophomore Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) in the 800 meters. Specht turned in a season-best 800 time of 2:13.34 at Notre Dame earlier this season, finishing a half second off her career-best pace and Delvo looks to improve on her season-best time of 2:13.96 set at the Indiana Relays earlier this month.
Senior Whitney Schumacher (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) and freshman Lauren Cunningham (Bayside, Wis./Nicolet) will conclude Saturday's action for the Braves in the 3,000 meters at 2:30 p.m. (CST). Cunningham won the 3,000 meters at the Southern Illinois Invitational on Feb. 8 with the eighth-best time in school history at 10:08.41. Schumacher was right behind Cunningham and just four seconds off the best time of her career in the event at SIU two weeks ago.
The weekend starts Friday at the Iowa Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa. The field events start the day's competition at 4 p.m., with sophomore Elizabeth Dutcher (Williamston, Mich./Williamston) entered in the long jump, high jump and 60-meter hurdles.
The running events are slated to start at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Iowa Recreation Building, with eight Braves scheduled to run in the mile. Junior Taylor Johnson (Lincoln, Neb./Southeast) owns the top time this season among the Bradley runners in the field at 5:10.18.
Freshman Katie Wampole (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Kennedy) is expected to pace a trio of Braves in the 800 meters and sophomore Caitlin Pribble (Morton, Ill./Morton) is one of two Bradley entries in the 3,000 meters. Freshman Melody Mercado (Belvidere, Ill./Belvidere) is BU's lone entry in the 400 meters. The Braves wrap up the Iowa Invitational with a pair of teams in the 4x400 meter relay.
Bradley returns to the state of Iowa next weekend for the MVC Indoor Track & Field Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa, March 1 & 2.
