For the second year in a row, Brandeis will be heading to the indoor NCAA national championships. This past weekend, the men’s and women’s teams competed at Tufts University’s Last Chance Meet, competing for a higher seed time at nationals.
The team is led by senior captain Emily Bryson ’19, who will be competing in both the mile run and the distance medley relay (DMR) as the anchor. E. Bryson is the only team member competing in multiple events.
According to an article by Brandeis Judges, E. Bryson set school records in both of these events this most recent indoor season. She ran a 4:45.48 mile on Feb. 15, 2019 at the Fastrack Last Chance Meet in Staten Island, NY and the DMR team ran a 11:41.98 at the Tufts Last Chance Meet.
Julia Bryson ’19, Leinni Valdez ’21 and Doyin Ogundiran ’19 also ran the race alongside E. Bryson. J. Bryson ran the 1200-meter leg, Valdez ran the 400-meter leg, Ogundiran ran the 800-meter leg, and E. Bryson anchored on the 1600-meter leg.
The Judges team is seeded first in the nation with a seed time of 11:34.54.
J. Bryson and Ogundiran were eligible to compete in other events at nationals, the mile and 800-meter, respectively, but decided to forgo their individual events to focus on winning the national title for the DMR.
In the 2018 indoor season, the Bryson twins, Ogundiran and Valdez’s sister Lisbeth Valdez ’21 placed third in the DMR and earned All-American honors.
Rookie Jac Guerra ’22 will be joining E. Bryson in the mile run event. Guerra’s third place time of 5:06.61 at UAA’s a few weeks ago was converted to 5:03.61 and ranked him 38th nationally at the end of the regular season. With other runners choosing to compete in other events, Guerra is seeded 16th out of 20 at the meet this week. E. Bryson is seeded first with a seed time of 4:45.58, almost 10 seconds faster than the runner seeded second.
E. Bryson told The Hoot in an email that she feels a lot of pressure heading back to nationals not only being a senior, but also to live up to her performance from last year. “I’ll definitely be nervous heading into my races this weekend, but I try not to look at them as being any different from any of my previous races from this season,” E. Bryson told The Hoot. “I know I’ve prepared all season for this, so I know I’m ready and am excited for some fun races and great performances.”
Guerra told The Brandeis Hoot in an email that he did not expect to be competing at nationals. He is happy to be competing in the mile, especially with teammate E. Bryson on the track with him.
“I’m trying not to think about the fact that I’m the only first-year,” Guerra told The Hoot. “I don’t want to psych myself out thinking that the older runners will have an edge on me. I’ve learned that while actually racing all of those things don’t tend to matter anyways.”
Guerra is also extremely excited for the weekend. He was originally going to the meet as a reserve for the DMR but feels better knowing that he will be competing in a race. “Some really fantastic runners don’t get to race as an individual for their entire collegiate careers, so I feel very fortunate and very grateful for my team, Coach Evans, and this program,” said Guerra. “I am nervous, of course, because I do want to perform to ability. A lot of people don’t realize how mental competitive running is, so I’m trying to keep the nerves high enough to motivate me, but not so high as to hold me back.”
The biggest takeaway that Guerra has gotten during his first indoor season at Brandeis is to “trust the process of training.” Guerra cited how Brandeis Coach Sinead Evans focuses on long-term goals.
E. Bryson has learned to take each race one at a time. “I walked away from a few races this season disappointed with my performances and struggled a bit in the beginning of the season executing races well tacitly, but as the season rolled on I just kept focusing on one race at a time and running faster and faster with each race.”
Guerra also looks up to the seniors on the team as inspiration and motivation for a place he wants to be in the future.
On the other end of the spectrum, E. Bryson finds it surreal that it will be her last indoor race competing for Brandeis. “I’m excited to just give these races everything I’ve got. This NCAA’s is also especially exciting since they’re in Boston and I’ll get to race with so many friends and family supporting me, and I can’t think of a better way to end my indoor career for Brandeis.”
The NCAA Division III National Championships will be held on March 8 and 9 at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston, MA.
