LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Senior Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) broke her own 6K school record to finish sixth overall and helped pace the Bradley women's cross country team to a sixth-place team finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional Friday afternoon.
Busch turned in the top individual finish by a Bradley runner at the NCAA Midwest Regional since Mary Ellen Hill placed second in 1998 and joined Hill as the only Braves to finish in the top 10 at an NCAA Regional. Her 6K time of 20:25.9 broke her own school mark of 20:32.7 set at last month's Pre-Nationals in Louisville, Ky. Busch, who earned USTFCCCA All-Region honors for the second time in her career, narrowly missed an automatic spot in next week's NCAA Championship, finishing 3.2 seconds back of Tulsa's Rachel Baptista for the last individual automatic bid from the Midwest Regional, but is in the running for an at-large spot in the field.
The three nationally ranked teams in the field took the top three spots with 13th-ranked Oklahoma State claiming top honors with 51 points. Iowa State, which is ranked 16th, was second with 98 points and 21st-ranked Minnesota was third at 125. Regional host Kansas won a tie-breaker with Tulsa at 151 points to take fourth with the Golden Hurricane fifth overall.
Bradley was the top finisher among Missouri Valley Conference competitors in sixth at 263 points, while Oklahoma was seventh at 282 and Valley rival Wichita State was close behind in eighth (284 points).
The short-handed Braves were without senior Rosie Hiles (Hampshire, England/Alton College/University of Birmingham), who missed the NCAA Regional due to injury. Hiles was 49th at last year's NCAA Regional and earned honorable mention MVC honors this fall following a 14th-place finish at the Valley Championship.
Two-time MVC Athlete of the Year Caitlin Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) missed out on all-region honors by less than one-and-a-half second, crossing the line in 26th at 21:00.5. Senior Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) was 53rd overall at 21:31.5 and freshman Gabby Juarez (Streamwood, Ill./Streamwood) rounded out the team scoring for Bradley with a time of 21:59.0 to finish 86th.
Two other Braves turned in career-best 6K times with senior Kylie McKinney (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA) clocking a 22:05.5 to finish 95th to top her previous career-best effort by 18 seconds and freshman Abby Jockisch (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap) improving her season-best 6K time to 22:10.0 to place 103rd. Senior Rachel Sudbury (Tomahawk, Wis./Tomahawk) edged out Jockisch for 102nd overall in the field, posting a time of 22:09.4.
The field for the NCAA Championship, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 21 in Louisville, Ky., will be announced Saturday afternoon.
