CARBONDALE, Ill. – Sophomore Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) joined Bradley Hall of Fame member Mary Ellen Hill as the only individuals in program history to win a pair of championships in the same MVC Outdoor Track & Field Championship, sweeping the 800 & 1,500 meter finals Sunday to highlight Sunday's competition for Bradley.
Delvo opened the day in the 1,500 meters, claiming top individual honors in the field by less than a half second with a time of 4:32.47 to edge second-place finisher Alyvia Clark of Loyola who was second in the field at 4:32.93.
Twin brother Eric Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) took ninth in the men's 1,500 meters, crossing the line at 3:58.19.
Later in the afternoon, Emily Delvo returned to the track to win the 800 meter title. Delvo, who also won the 800 meter title at the MVC Indoor Championship back in March, is just the fourth individual in conference history to sweep the 800 and 1,500 meter titles at the Valley's outdoor championship and first since Noa Beitler of Southern Illinois in 2003.
Delvo's career-best time of 2:09.42 was five one-hundredths of a second behind Mary Goldkamp's
2011 school record and made her the first Brave to win two individual titles at the MVC Outdoor Championship since Mary Ellen Hill won both the 3,000 and 5,000 meter titles in 1998.
The pair of individual titles helped the Bradley women's track and field team finish with a school record 44 points at the MVC Outdoor Championship, surpassing the previous mark of 41 points set at the 1998 MVC Championship. In addition, the women's team had three individual champions at the Valley Outdoor Championship for the first time in program history.
"We put an exclamation point on a fantastic outdoor conference meet today,” said Bradley head coach Marc Burns. “Emily (Delvo) was amazing winning both the 1,500 meter and 800 meter titles. She ran away from both fields in dominant fashion and had just one hour between events. She closed in 62 seconds for the last 400 meters of the 1,500; you don't see that every day.”
Junior Kyela Specht (Munster, Ind./Munster) was fourth in the women's 800 meters, clocking the fourth-best time in school history with a career-best effort of 2:11.04.
“Kyela (Specht) took the 800 meters out hard and fought off most of the field to finish fourth,” added Burns. “I am so proud of this team for the way they battled this weekend. We had a team of warriors on both sides. This is a major step forward for our programs."
In the women's 5,000 meters, sophomore Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) took ninth overall with a time of 16:57.81 to finish seven seconds out of the top five and pace five Braves in the event. Freshman Patrick Campbell (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa) was 10th in the men's 5,000 meters with a time of 14:56.16.
Emily Delvo was also part of Bradley's 4x400 meter relay team, which posted the fifth-best time in school history and best performance by the Braves since 2005 with a time of 3:59.96. She was joined on the relay team by Specht, sophomore Elizabeth Dutcher (Williamston, Mich./Williamston) and senior Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria).
The Bradley men's team finished with 18 points for the team's highest total since 1986.
