Conference championships mark a turning point in the season for every NCAA cross country program. It's the first race where placements truly matter, where trophies and bragging rights are won and lost for the year.

For Baylor junior Lindsey Bradley, the No. 24 woman in the FloXC rankings, this weekend's Big 12 Championship means even more than a medal or a podium finish. It represents how far she's come from her lowest moment in the sport.

Watch the 2017 Big 12 XC Championship LIVE on FloTrack

Two years ago, freshman Bradley sported a Washington Huskies singlet while crossing the finish line at the Pac-12 XC Championships in 57th place, the ninth runner for her team. The placement wasn't bad for a first-year student-athlete, but it wasn't quite up to par with her results earlier in the season.

The next day, she set off on a long run with her teammates, but couldn't shake an excruciating pain in her leg. A quick trip to the doctor revealed she had a femoral stress fracture that would take out her out for the next five months.

"It was a huge bummer, to say the least," she says now.


The injury forced Bradley to reevaluate her college experience outside of competitive running, and she quickly found she wasn't all that happy in Seattle. The Richland, Washington, native, who placed 14th at Nike Cross Nationals and ran 9:39 for 3K as a senior in high school, reconsidered her second choice school: Baylor, a Christian university over 2,000 miles away from Seattle in Waco, Texas -- the heart of football country, the home to 100 percent humidity, and the location of HGTV's "Fixer Upper" stars Chip and Joanna Gaines.

"I absolutely don't regret my decision to go to Washington and I think God put me there for many reasons," Bradley says. "It was a way for me to learn exactly what I needed in my life and what my college experience should be for my overall happiness. Originally, I was afraid of the distance from home to Texas because I was a homebody. But halfway through freshman year, I started realizing the distance maybe didn't matter compared to how happy I'd be at Baylor."

The blue-chip recruit was attracted to Baylor because of its reputation as a Christian school. The mild Texas winters helped, too.

"It doesn't sound that important, but living in the rain was tough for me because I love sunshine and warmth," she says, admitting in the same breath that it did take her awhile to adjust to the state's scorching heat and humidity. "It was a shock to the system, like a sauna."


In her first year as a Bear, Bradley improved quickly and established herself as the natural heir to All-American and perennial All-Big 12 performer Maggie Montoya. She was Montoya's shadow for much of the cross country season, usually finishing just a few places behind the senior and even outrunning her at the Big 12 XC championship to finish as the first Bear in fifth place overall.

On the eve of the NCAA South Central Region Championship, Bradley was hit with a wave of fierce nostalgia from one of Facebook's automatically generated flashback posts. 

"It was one of those 'this day one year ago' posts," she says, "a picture of me on crutches at the West Regional and we were heading to the South Central meet [that day]. It was a hit in the face. I just thought, 'How incredible that I'm here again . . . I fought back after that and I'm healthy to race.'"


She placed third in the NCAA South Central Region behind Montoya's runner-up finish as the Bears ended in second behind Arkansas to nab an automatic spot to the NCAA championship. Unfortunately, NCAAs was the only race of the year in which Bradley struggled to find her form; instead of running close to Montoya, who placed 44th and just outside of All-American honors, Bradley finished as the No. 4 Bear in 175th place overall.

"Definitely not what I was hoping for," she says now. "Individually, gosh, the biggest thing I learned was you can't necessarily plan for everything and you never know how a race is going to go. My body couldn't acclimate to how cold it was on the day. I got out really terribly because my legs were just kind of frozen, to be honest. There's still two more chances, and it just makes us hungrier."

Bradley became a leading Big 12 point scorer for the Bears during the track season, racking up a runner-up finish in the indoor 5K, fifth place in the indoor 3K, and two third-place finishes in the outdoor 5K and 10K at the conference championships. Her points at the indoor meet helped Baylor win its first-ever women's indoor Big 12 title, which she calls "just surreal."

​Lindsey Bradley reacts to placing third at the Big 12 Championships in her debut 10K:



After running closely with FloXC No. 20 Sharon Lokedi of Kansas at the outdoor track championships, Bradley feels ready to challenge the defending Big 12 champion in cross country this Saturday. So far, her season has unfolded fairly closely to the way she ran in 2016, with top 15 performances at Notre Dame and Wisconsin, the latter despite battling a sore throat.

"Especially after the last track season running Big 12s with Sharon in the 10K and 5K, I know I am capable of running with her," she says. "I know I have a shot and I'm excited to see how long I can hang on. Individually, my coach and I think that I'm capable of racing better than I have been so far and that goes for our whole team. Our workouts show that we're capable of racing at a higher level than we have been. I have a lot of faith."

​Watch Lindsey Bradley place 13th at the Wisconsin Invitational:



Making a return trip to nationals isn't guaranteed again this year without Montoya's low stick. Big 12s provides a nice barometer for the team to measure themselves against after placing fifth in the conference, then second in the region last year.

"On one hand, you do have to take it one weekend, one race at a time," Bradley says, "but we've definitely talked about regionals because ultimately our goal this season is to make it to nationals. We've kept tabs on the teams in our region, not obsessively, but been aware of it. We do think we have a chance to run well at regionals but it won't come easily and we know that and we will have to step up on the day and perform and work together. It's an exciting challenge we're not afraid of, but definitely focused on Big 12s at the moment."

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