PEORIA, Ill. -- Senior Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) will run in the 1,500 meters at the 2016 NCAA West Preliminaries in Lawrence, Kan., joining twin sisters Caitlin Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg) and Kristen Busch (Waterloo, Ill./Freeburg), who will run in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, announced Thursday afternoon.
Delvo will run at the NCAA West Prelims for the second consecutive year after competing in the 5,000 meters last spring in Austin, Texas. The 2016 Missouri Valley Conference 1,500 meter champion, Delvo is the seventh two-time 1,500 meter champ in MVC history, also winning the event in 2014.
Earlier this year, Delvo clocked the third-best 1,500 meter time in the MVC with a career-best time of 4:23.47 at the Virginia Challenge. Her time was three-tenths of a second from Mary Goldkamp's 2011 school-record pace of 4:23.18. Delvo will run in one of four 1,500 meter heats which will be held Thursday, May 26 at 5:30 p.m.
Kristen Busch will be making a third consecutive appearance at the NCAA West Prelim, running in the 10,000 meters each of the last three seasons in addition to the 5,000 meters as a sophomore in 2014. Her sister Caitlin will also compete in the 10,000 meters at the NCAA West Prelim for a second consecutive year.
The duo took first and second in the 10K at last week's MVC Championship, with Kristen becoming just the third three-time 10,000 meter champion in league history. Kristen, who reached the NCAA Championship in the 10,000 meters with a ninth-place finish in 2014, was 12 seconds from again reaching the finals in the event last spring. She owns the top four 10,000 meter performances in school history and eight of the top 12, with her season-best time of 34:05.93 second in the MVC this year.
Caitlin clocked a career-best 10K time of 34:20.65 at the Stanford Invitational in early April and will join her sister in the NCAA West Prelim field Thursday, May 26 at 9 p.m.
The Busch twins will also toe the line for the 5,000 meters, Saturday, May 28 at 8:05 p.m. at the NCAA West Prelim in Lawrence, Kan. Caitlin finished second last week in the 5,000 at the MVC Outdoor Championship in Terre Haute, Ind., while Kristen was third in the field.
Kristen will compete in both the 10K and 5K at the NCAA West Prelim for the second time, also doing so as a sophomore in 2014. Her career-best 5K time of 16:24.03 from the Virginia Challenge in late April is third among Bradley school marks. She was 11th in her NCAA Prelim heat in 2014.
Caitlin also posted a career-best 5K time this spring at the Virginia Challenge (16:27.26) and challenged that mark with an effort of 16:35.23 at the MVC Championship last week.
