AUGUSTA, Kan. - Senior Mary Goldkamp (Florissant, Mo./McCluer North) finished sixth at the 2010 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championship to help the Bradley women's cross country team to a fifth-place finish, while sophomore Jon Richards (Streator, Ill./Streator) paced the Bradley men's cross country squad to an eight-place showing Saturday.
Goldkamp earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honors for the second consecutive year, after running a career-best 5K time of 17:47.08 to finish sixth at the Valley Championship at the RAFT Golf Course and joined Mary Ellen Hill-Schupbach and Angie Zimmerman as the only two-time all-conference performers in program history. Goldkamp, who finished 5th at last year's MVC Championship, ran the fourth fastest time for a Brave at the MVC Championship and finished seven seconds out of a top three finish.
Richards was Bradley's top finisher on the men's side, marking the first time this season senior Andrew Wieser (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) did not lead the Braves. Richards legged out Weiser by two seconds, crossing the line in 34h at 26:39.58 in the men's 8K, while Wieser was 35th overall at 26:41.27 as the duo helped lead the men's squad to an eight-place finish. Senior Brian Tyne (Polo, Ill./Polo) followed three seconds behind in 37th at 26:44.95.
Freshman Whitney Schumacher (Appleton, Wis./Kimberly) joined Goldkamp as one of three women's runners to turn in career-best times Saturday. Schumacher was 17th overall at 18:20.35 and freshman Cassie Lohmeier (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) crossed the line in 24th at 18:42.03 to help lead the women's team. Senior Lauren Fog (Harvard, Ill./Harvard) clocked a career-best time of 19:05.79 to finish 40, while sophomore Emily Gustafson (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) rounded out the scoring for the Braves, finishing 43rd at 19:14.23.
On the men's side, seniors accounted for each of the top five finishers for BU and the Braves top five finishers all crossed the line within 30 seconds of each other. Following Tyne's 37th-place finish, senior Michael Donini (Henry, Ill./Henry-Senachwine/Illinois Central College) was 41st in the field at 26:54.34 and senior Billy Miller (Metamora, Ill./Metamora/Illinois Central) closed out the scoring for Bradley with a 45th-place finish at 27:07.60.
Wichita State's Tonya Nero ran a 17:25.34 to win the individual title and help the Shockers to the women's team championship with 54 points. Illinois State was second in the team standings at 68 points and Missouri State rounded out the top three at 82 points. Indiana State edged Bradley for fourth place by two points, finishing with 126, and the Braves rounded out the top half of the standings in fifth at 128. Southern Illinois was nine points back of BU in sixth (137), while Drake (149), Northern Iowa (190), Evansville (211) and Creighton (285) rounded out the women's standings.
Dan Dunbar of Southern Illinois won the men's individual title, but Indiana State had four of the top five finishers and the Sycamores took the team title with 25 points. SIU followed in second at 61 points and Illinois State was third overall at 75. Northern Iowa finished fourth (87) with Drake taking fifth at 155 points. Evansville (6th - 181 points) edged Wichita State (7th - 184 points) by three points for sixth and the Braves were just six points behind the Purple Aces in eighth at 187. Creighton completed the field in ninth at 248 points.
Both the men's and women's cross country teams return to action in two weeks when Bradley hosts the 2010 NCAA Midwest Regional Saturday, Nov. 13 at 11 a.m. at Newman Golf Course.
