Kenedi Bradley blows away the field in 100 meters and wins 200 at DAC championship meet; Trojans place third

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The 100 meters is such a short sprint, and the DAC is so rich with fast runners every year that it’s not uncommon for even the sprinters themselves to not know who won the race until the track announcer counts down the top finishers in reverse order.
There was no doubt Tuesday night at Valparaiso, site of the DAC championship. Chesterton junior Kenedi Bradley blasted out of the starting blocks better than she ever had, she said afterward, and ran the best 100 of her life to blow away a strong field.
Bradley finished fifth at the state in the 100 meters as a sophomore, but she didn’t run a race as strong as the one she ran Tuesday night. Bradley’s time, a personal best 11.94, fell just short of a Camryn Dunn’s 11.91 set in 2022, but nobody would have been surprised if a time faster than Dunn’s had been announced.
Bradley closed the race every bit as impressively as she started it. And her evening was just getting started. Bradley backed up her second 100-meter DAC championship with her first conference meet win in the 200 meters. She also anchored the Chesterton 4x100 relay. Given that all three of her races included heats, Bradley had quite a busy night but looked every bit as fresh in her final of six sprints as in the other five.
She ran a 25.04 and finished strong in the 200 meters to edge Valparaiso’s Mia Smith (25.18) and Portage’s Tiara Gray (25.19).
The 100 wasn’t nearly as close. Gray took second with a 12.27, ahead of Valpo’s Ava Vanda (12.68) and Brianna Fincannon (12.70) and Chesterton’s Ava Kontos (12.75).
Chesterton had enough other strong performances to finish third in a meet won by Valparaiso. Lake Central finished second.
The only suspense involved in the 100 meters revolved around whether Bradley broke a school record, a mystery solved when the announcer revealed her time.
“We thought I did because Coach M (Lindsay Moskalick) hand-held it at 11.5, but I guess I had an 11.94, which is still a PR,” Bradley said.
In a May 8 meet at Chesterton against Merrillville and Portage, Bradley obliterated Dunn’s 200-meter school record with a 24.90, blowing away the field. But Gray got the better of her in the 100, 12.06 to 12.07, and Chesterton with Bradley running the anchor leg, set the school record in the 4x100 with a 48.47, edging Portage (48.48).
“Tiara Gray, when we ran against Portage, we were neck and neck in the 100, we were so close we were hitting each other on accident,” Bradley said. “I don’t know what happened tonight.”
What happened was Bradley was not going to let that happen again so she tore way in front of the rest of the runners and stayed there.
Bradley handled the preliminary heats in smarter fashion than a year ago, when she burned too much energy in them.
“Coach M told me to get out strong and see where I’m at and then kind of coast, so I don’t kill myself, which was definitely good because last year I was dying,” Bradley said.
She also she handled the excessive workload that comes with having to run preliminary heats in the postseason with maturity.
“I’m just happy I’m not my little baby sophomore self and complaining the whole time like I did last year,” she said.
Bradley said she thought she ran better Tuesday night than in any other meet in her life.
“I felt really, really good tonight,” she said. “All my block starts were really good. I had my best block start I’ve ever had today in my 100. I was low and everything was perfect. I feel like this year I’ve been a lot stronger. Even after running all those events, I still ran a 25.04.”
The 4x100 Bradley anchored fell just short of the school record the girls set on May 8. Ava Kontos, Kaylee Dade, Addison Pack and Bradley all ran well in it and were clocked in 48.49, good for second place behind Valparaiso.
The top eight placers in the meet score points in individual and relay events: 10 points for first, eight for second, six for third and then one fewer point each place, down to one point for the eighth-place finisher.
Senior jumper Hailey Geiser lost her two-year stranglehold on the DAC high jump title but picked up 13 points for the Trojans by finished tied for second with a 5-2 high jump and third with her best long jump, a 17-8.
Junior Gretta McCrovitz placed second in the 400 meters and ran the first leg of the 4x400 relay that took third place with a 4:06.80. Junior Aubrey Bamber anchored that race and earned four points in the open 400 with a 1:01.26. Freshman Taylor Kisic and senior Kaylee Dade joined them in the relay.
Taking fourth place, senior Veronica Wilgocki produced her best 800 meters ever with a 2:22.26. She also anchored the 4x800 (9:49.58) that earned fifth-place points, joined by freshmen Hannah Haring, Kisic and Paige Clancy. Kisic earned two points finishing seventh with a 2:27.56 in the open 800.
Junior Lauren Kroft moved up a spot from sixth to fifth with a strong kick that paid off at the very last stride of the 3200 meters, which she covered in 11:49.08. Also thanks to a strong kick, sophomore Jessica Martin picked up a point with a 12:06.77.
Junior Lux Mountford finished sixth in the 300 hurdles (47.87) and sophomore Harper Russell was eighth in the 100 hurdles (16.92).
Seniors Ava Persin and Luciana Raffin both cleared 8-6 in the pole vault, Persin finishing third, Raffin fifth.
Senior Liz St. Marie delivered her best shot put with a 36-6, good for sixth, and Autumn Spencer placed fourth in the discus (107-9).