PEORIA, Ill. -- After opening the 2016 indoor season at the Illini Classic in Champaign, Ill., last weekend, the Bradley men's and women's track & field teams will make the first of many trips to Indiana this winter for the Gladstein Invitational in Bloomington, Ind., Friday and Saturday.
The two-day meet is slated to get under way Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. (CST) with the bulk of the action for the Braves on the opening day of competition. Saturday's events will get under way at 10 a.m. (CST) at Indiana's Harry Gladstein Fieldhouse.
Highlighting Friday's schedule for Bradley will be the mile, 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. In the women's 3,000 meters the senior combo of Caitlin Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) and Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) will be joined by freshman Abby Jockisch (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap). Kristen challenged the school record in the 3,000 meters last year and the pair owns two of the top four 3,000 meter times in program history.
Sophomore Michael Ward (Cardiff, South Wales/Llanishen) will make his 2016 track debut in the men's 3,000 meters Friday afternoon and the school record holder in the event will be joined by senior Chase Coffey (Hanna City, Ill./Farmington) and sophomore Taylor Floyd Mews (Milwaukee, Wis./Wauwatosa West) in the field.
In the women's mile, junior Rachel Sudbury (Tomahawk, Wis./Tomahawk) will toe the line with freshmen Gabby Juarez (Streamwood, Ill./Streamwood) and Bailey Johnson (Grandville, Mich./Jenson). Sudbury, who owns the eighth-best mile time in school history, paced the Braves in the 800 meters at Illinois this past weekend.
A trio of seniors are entered in the women's 5,000 meters including Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax), who has earned All-MVC honors in the 5,000 meters each of her three previous indoor seasons. Lauren Houmes (Hoopeston, Ill./Hoopeston) ran in the 5,000 meters once in 2015, while Kylie McKinney (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA) will be making her debut in the event.
Junior Patrick Campbell (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa) won the men's 3,000 meters at the season-opening Illini Classic and will move up to the 5,000 meters this weekend. He owns the third-best 5,000 meter time in school history at 14:53.90, behind fellow junior Caleb Beck's (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) second-place time of 14:38.12. Joining Beck and Campbell in the men's 5,000 meter field will be freshman Will Anderson (Avon, Ind./Avon).
Saturday's competition will feature the 800 meters. On the women's side, freshman Brooke Nusser (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) had a strong debut in the 800 meters last week at Illinois, while junior Casey Kramer (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) will try to establish a new season-best time. Sophomore Kathryn Adelman (Naperville, Ill./Geneva) will run in the first 800 meters of her collegiate career.
A pair of Bradley men will run in the 800 meters for the first time in their careers with junior Mike Bianchina (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and freshman Scott Seymour (Kenosha, Wis./Mary D. Bradford) running in the event for the first time. Junior Daniel Gagne (Wauwatosa, Wis./East) clocked the 10th-best 800 meter time in school last January in Charleston, Ill.
The Bradley men's and women's track & field teams will take next weekend off before returning to action Feb. 5 & 6 at the Meyo Invitational in Notre Dame, Ind., along with the Olivet Nazarene Invite in Bourbonnais, Ill., Saturday, Feb. 6.
