Brackmann, Ward 2018-19 Most Outstanding Athletes

Women's Basketball player Chelsea Brackmann and Runner Michael Ward are the 2018-19 Varsity Club Most Outstanding Athletes

Varsity Club Most Outstanding Athletes Annual Winners

Bobby Parker, Associate AD for Communications General 7/29/2019 12:54:00 PM

PEORIA, IL – With the voting totals from coaches and staff, fans and local media tallied, women's basketball junior forward Chelsea Brackmann (New Berlin, WI/Eisenhower H.S.) and senior runner Michael Ward (Cardiff, South Wales/Llanishen School) are the Bradley Varsity Club Most Outstanding Female and Male Athletes for the 2018-19 school year.

While Brackmann becomes the second women's basketball player to win the award in the last three years (Leti Lerma, 2016-17), Ward gives the Bradley cross country and track programs one of the two winners for the ninth time in the last 10 years, while becoming the first-ever Men's Cross Country/Track competitor to repeat as the Male Most Outstanding Athlete.

Brackmann led the Bradley Women's Basketball team to a 20-10 overall record in 2018-19, just the third 20-win season in program history and the first since 2008-09. An All-Missouri Valley Conference first-team selection and member of the league's All-Defense Team, Brackmann set the program's single-season record with 327 rebounds this past season. The total was 10th-best in Valley history and she ranked 21st nationally by averaging a league-best 10.9 rebounds per game.

Coupled with her scoring clip at 12.6 points per game, Brackmann collected 16 double-doubles during the 2018-19 season, the second-best total in program history and the best by any Valley player since 2014-15. She was one of seven players in the nation and the first MVC player since 2011-12 to collect at least 375 points, 325 rebounds, 35 assists, 30 blocks and 45 steals in a season. Brackmann also was the first Valley player since at least 1994-95 to twice score at least 20 points and grab 20 rebounds in a game in the same season. She tied the school record with 24 rebounds in one of those two efforts with 22 points Jan. 6 versus UNI at Renaissance Coliseum and she also racked up 24 points and 20 rebounds Feb. 3 at Loyola Chicago.

Ward ended his career as the most-decorated athlete in Bradley Men's Cross Country and Track history, turning in another historic season in his fifth year with the Braves. He began his final season by helping his cross country squad earn its fourth consecutive Missouri Valley Conference title and advance to the NCAA Cross Country Championship for the first time in program history, earning both all-conference and NCAA All-Midwest Region honors. Capping the indoor track season, Ward once again completed the "distance double" by winning MVC Indoor Track Championship titles in both 3,000-meters and 5,000-meters races, and he then finished his collegiate career by qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Track Championship in the 10,000 meters.

Collecting a total of five All-Missouri Valley Conference awards during the 2018-19 competition year – cross country; indoor track 3,000 meters; indoor 5,000 meters; outdoor 1,500 meters; and outdoor 5,000 meters – Ward set the school records in the 3,000 meters (7:57.22) and the 10,000 meters (29:16.20). He ended his career with six MVC individual track titles and 14 all-conference performances in cross country (three), indoor track (seven) and outdoor track (four), while individually qualifying for the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship, as well as the NCAA Outdoor Track Championship in each of his four outdoor seasons (six events in total).

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