PEORIA, Ill. -- The Bradley track and field team makes the first of two scheduled trips to the state of Indiana for the Indiana Relays Friday and Saturday at the Gladstein Fieldhouse in Bloomington, Ind. The Braves will take a group of 10 individuals to the two-day meet, which will mark the halfway point of the indoor track season.
"We are looking forward to getting on a 200-meter banked track and seeing where we are at this point in the season," Bradley track and field head coach Marc Burns said. "Sarah McMahon will be running the 3K as a tune up for the Junior National Cross Country race in St. Louis on Feb. 11th. It is exciting to be running a couple of relays this weekend and we should challenge the 4x800m school record. Our fitness is coming around and we should be ready to take the next step toward the conference meet this weekend."
Most of the action for Bradley will take place on Friday beginning with the 600 meters at 5:25 p.m. (CST). Freshman Hanna Booker (Tremont, Ill./Tremont) will be running the 600 meters for the third time in as many meets and looks to improve on her season-best effort of 1:40.41 set in the season opener in Iowa City, Iowa.
Booker is one of three Braves in the event and will be joined by freshman Emily Delvo (Springfield, Ill./Sacred Heart Griffin) and sophomore Sarah Higgins (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais), who will both be running in the 600 meters for the first time this season. Delvo and Higgins turned in Bradley's top two times in the 800 meters last week at Illinois.
The first day of competition is also scheduled to include senior Sarah Hallstein (Minier, Ill./Olympia) in the mile and freshman Sarah McMahon (Colfax, Wis./Colfax) in the 3,000 meters. Hallstein is coming off a season-best effort in the mile at Illinois last week, while McMahon won the 3,000 meters at Iowa's New Year's Classic in the season-opening meet.
Senior Lyndsey Cleghorn (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) will compete in the high jump during Friday's action and the foursome of Molly Dahlquist (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame), Taylor Johnson (Lincoln, Neb./Southeast), Whitney Schumacher (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) and Kyela Specht (Munster, Ind./Munster) will run in the distance medley relay to wrap up the first day of competition.
Saturday's events will include the 800 meters and the 4x800 relay. Delvo turned in the top 800 time on the squad at last week's Illini Classic and is one of three Braves in the 800 meter field. Higgins ran a career-best 800 meter time last week at Illinois and the duo will be joined by Schumacher, who will be running the 800 for the first time this year.
Dahlquist, Johnson, Specht and Booker will represent Bradley in the 4x800 relay in BU's final event and the group is expected to challenge the school 4x800 record of 9:45.29 set in 1986.
The Braves will have next week off before returning to the track Feb. 10 & 11 at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa.
