Mary Ellen Hill and Caitlin Busch Named to MVC Cross Country 25-Year Team

Women's Cross Country 10/26/2017 1:00:00 PM

In celebration of the Missouri Valley Conference's 25th anniversary of sponsoring women's sports, the league announced a 10-member Women's Cross Country 25-Year Team on Thursday. Two Bradley standouts earned inclusion on the team with Mary Ellen Hill '00 and Caitlin Busch '16 both receiving the honor.

A 10-time MVC individual champion in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, Hill was announced as one of the members of The Valley's 21st Hall of Fame Class earlier this year, set to earn induction in March. She is the first Bradley female to earn MVC Hall of Fame accolades and just the third cross country runner – male or female – to collect the honor.

The 1998 and 1999 MVC Cross Country individual champion, Hill helped Bradley to the first women's conference championship in any sport in school history by leading the Braves to the co-title with Drake at the 1998 MVC Championship. On the track, she was also a three-time individual champion in the indoor 3,000m (1998, 1999 and 2000), while collecting the 1998 indoor mile, 1998 indoor 5,000m, 1998 outdoor 3,000m, 1998 outdoor 5,000m and 2000 outdoor 10,000m crowns.

Busch followed in Hill's footsteps and became the second Brave to win the MVC Championship, finishing first at the 2014 and 2015 meets. The Waterloo, Illinois, native also helped the Braves to their second and third conference crowns in program history the same years she finished atop the podium.

On the track, Busch won the 3,000m title at the 2016 MVC Indoor Championship, while collecting the 5,000m crown at the 2015 MVC Indoor Championship. She also earned NCAA All-Midwest Region honors in 2014 and advanced to the NCAA Preliminaries for track three times during her career.

Overall, Hill and Busch are two of just five multiple winners of the MVC Championship in the 25 years of the conference.

Name	School	Years	Notable Honors
Caitlin Busch	Bradley	2012-15	1-time NCAA All-Region Team, 2-time MVC Champion, 2-time All-Conference
Mary Ellen Hill	Bradley	1996-99	3-time NCAA All-Region Team, 2-time MVC Champion, 3-time All-Conference, 3-time Academic All-American, All-Centennial Team
Stacia Beste	Illinois State	1997-01	1-time MVC Champion, 4-time All-Conference, 1-time Academic All-American, 2-time USTFCCCA All-Academic All-American, All-Centennial Team
Sue Dagget Miller*	Illinois State	1993-96	1-time NCAA All-American, 2-time MVC Champion, 4-time All-Conference, All-Centennial Team
Jessica Crowder (Wayton)	Indiana State	2000-05	1-time NCAA All-American, 1-time NCAA All-Region, 1-time MVC Champion, 4-time All-Conference, 3-time WICCCA Academic All-American, All-Centennial Team
Angie Menser (Lansing)	Indiana State	1994-98	1-time NCAA All-Region Team, 2-time All-Conference, 1-time WICCCA Academic All-American, All-Centennial Team
Debbi Ramseyer (Cronin)	Indiana State	1989-93	3-time NCAA All-Region Team, 2-time MVC Champion, 2- time All-Conference, 2-time Academic All-American
Casey Owens	Missouri State	2001-04	3-time NCAA All-Region, 2-time MVC Champion, 4-time All-Conference
Terry Phillips	Missouri State	2007-10	2-time All-Region, 1-time MVC Champion, 3-time All-Conference
Aliphine Tuliamuk Bolton	Wichita State	2010-12	2-time NCAA All-American, 2-time MVC Champion, 2-time All-Conference, 1-time Academic All-American

During the 2017-18 academic year, the Valley is naming 25-Year Anniversary Teams for each of the Valley's sponsored sports. Team composition for each sport has been determined by a 25-person committee (two representatives from each MVC institution and a panel of five voters from the Conference office) and includes years in which league teams competed under the MVC umbrella during the past 25 years (1992-2017).

The current Bradley cross country teams look to add to the programs' trophy cases this weekend as the men's and women's teams are in action on Saturday at the MVC Championship in Springfield, Missouri. The men's 8K is scheduled for 10:35 a.m. with the women's 5K following at 11:35 a.m.

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