PEORIA, Ill. -- Junior Kylie McKinney (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA) was one of seven Bradley women to run career or season bests Friday at the 11th annual Bradley Classic, while freshman Taylor Floyd Mews (Milwaukee, Wis./Wauwatosa West) placed 50th to help pace the Bradley men's cross country team.
The busy day of action at Newman Golf Course featured four races with McKinney and Floyd Mews leading Bradley in their respective races.
McKinney topped her previous career-best 6K time by almost a full minute, clocking a 22:59.4 to place 108th overall in the women's Red Race. Three other Bradley women posted season or career-best 6K times to highlight the Red Race for the Braves. Sophomore Mackenzie Griffin (Petersburg, Ill./PORTA) was on McKinney's heels at 23:01.1 to finish 114th and sophomore Katie Wampole (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Kennedy) was close behind in 125th at 23:04.3.
Illinois claimed the team title in the Women's Red Race with 90 points to finish 20 points ahead of second-place South Dakota (110). Western Michigan's Maria McDaniel won the individual title in the Red Race with her time of 20:41.6 ranking as the second-fastest time in Bradley Classic history.
Floyd Mews was strong in his first collegiate 8K, pacing the Bradley men in the Red Race with a 50th-place finish. His time of 25:39.5 was 15 seconds out of the top 30 in the field. Fellow freshman Nikolas Hess crossed the line at 26:02.0 to finish 80th and sophomore Steffen Uhrich (Wauwatosa, Wis./East) posted a career-best time of 26:16.4 to finish 108th.
In the men's red race, Illinois State took the team title with 119 points behind a first-place individual finish by Ryan Rutherford for the Redbirds. Illinois State was 27 points better than second-place finishers Nebraska and Missouri (146). Rutherford won the individual title by 21 seconds.
Bradley got the day started on a strong note in the women's open/white race with the four Braves finishing in the top 10. Freshman Natalie Burant (Hartland, Wis./Arrowhead) led Bradley to the white race title with 36 points to edge second-place South Dakota State (56). Burant was one of three BU freshman to post season-best times in the day's first race with her season-best 6K time of 23:25.8 good for second behind individual winner Adriana Gutierrez of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who posted a time of 23:15.1.
Joining Burant in the top 10 of the women's white race were junior Caitlin Pribble (Morton, Ill./Morton) in fourth, freshman Kathryn Adelman (Naperville, Ill./Geneva) in ninth and freshman Nicole Alfano (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) in 10th.
Harper College won the men's 8K open/white race with 56 points and unattached runner Dan Lathrop was 25 seconds faster than the field, crossing the line at 25:33.2.
The Bradley men's and women's cross country teams return to action Saturday morning at Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind. Saturday's action is slated to start at 10 a.m. (CDT).
