After nipping at the heels of the school record in prior meets, the Lady Bisons’ distance medley relay team broke the mark at the Hoosiers Hills Invite in Bloomington, Ind. on Feb. 9.
Previously, the four athletes had come within three seconds of the record, but at the meet, they made one final push and crushed the standing record by 11 seconds.
The distance medley relay is a four-leg race of varying lengths, beginning with a 1,200-meter leg, followed by distances of 400, 800 and concluding with 1,600 — a mile.
Starting off the race for the Bisons was freshman Madi Talbert, who finished in 3:41.
Sophomore Brenna Thompson finished her 400 in 58 seconds.
Junior Katie Bunker, who ran the next leg, said at that point, she was not sure if they were even close to the record. She said the team was so far ahead of the pack that they virtually were running alone, which, according to Bunker, made for tough pacing.
Thompson agreed.
“Madi was in front when I got the baton, and then we were still in front when Katie got the baton, so we weren’t really running with other people,” Thompson said. “So, we didn’t know how fast we were going. We were kind of worried we had gone slow.”
Junior Dani Walker ran the last and longest leg of the race. It was while she was out on the track that her teammates realized they were on record-setting pace.
“While Dani was running, Brenna and I were standing on the inside [of the track] thinking ‘I hope we didn’t run slow,’ and screaming at Dani, who was doing great,” said Bunker.
Walker crossed the finish line with a time of 4:47, bringing the team to a total time of 11:42.
The race marked the final time that the team would participate together in this individual event.
“Our whole goal was to go out and break the record because we weren’t going to put this team back together at conference. So, this was our last chance to get the record,” Bunker said. “At least we ended on a good one.”