By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Foundation

Coming out of high school, Lindsey Bradley felt like Baylor was a perfect fit for her. But, the Richland, Wash., native and self-proclaimed "homebody" was scared off by the thought of traveling two zones and 1,894 miles away for college.

By the end of her first semester at the University of Washington, though, she realized "that wasn't exactly where God wanted me to be, and I needed to come to Baylor."

"Thank God, everything lined up perfectly," said Bradley, the No. 2 runner for a Baylor cross country team that's ranked 23rd going into Saturday's NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. "It worked out way better than I ever expected. The fact that (coach Todd Harbour) still had a spot and he still wanted me that late in the game was truly a God thing."

Habour knew he was getting a "difference-maker, for sure," in Bradley, the 2014-15 Gatorade Cross Country Athlete of the Year in Washington. She placed 12th at the 2014 Nike Cross Nationals, won the state cross country meet as a senior at Richland High School and also captured the 4A state title in the 3,200 meters as a senior in 2015.

"I knew she was a special talent. She had a great high school career," Harbour said. "I had an idea, but you never know for sure until you get them here. . . . I was really more excited about her, because getting to know her and her family during the recruiting process, I knew what kind of young lady she was. After what she went through up there, I wanted to make this right for her down her."

Suffering stress fractures in both her left tibia and right femur last fall, Bradley ran under 21 minutes in 6K races and placed in the top 20 in her first two meets. But, by the Pac-12 meet, she was ninth on the team and placed 57th overall.

"Not 100 percent, but most likely (the tibia injury) led to her right femoral stress fracture," Harbour said, "because she was compensating and kept running through it. She got one in her femur, which that is the big bone and takes longer to heal."

While trying to come back from the injuries, Bradley's training this fall has been "very limited, very restricted," Harbour said.

"I'm really thankful that we had those AlterG (anti-gravity) treadmills," Harbour said. "She's on them about three times a week. We're taking a very cautious approach with her coming off the stress fractures she had up there last year."

Which makes what Bradley has done this fall even more amazing. Held out of the first two meets of the fall, she made her Baylor debut at the Notre Dame Invitational and placed second on the team and 11th overall, covering the 5,000-meter course in 16:40.5.

"I knew right off the bat that we were loaded with talent," Bradley said. "I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to perform, but I knew we had something in the bag that people weren't expecting. Honestly, we've exceeded my expectations by like 50 million percent. It's been super exciting to see how we've progressed, just shocking the world and growing stronger together."

Proving that was no fluke, Bradley came back to finish 15th in a field of 211 runners at the Wisconsin Invitational, helping the Bears to a fifth-place finish and vaulting them to a No. 12 national ranking at the time.

"Notre Dame being my first race in almost a year was kind of intimidating,": she said. "I think that was really critical for me to get that exposure and gain that confidence that I needed to get back after not racing for a while. Being able to run with those top girls at those big meets was really encouraging." At the Big 12 Championships, Bradley actually finished ahead of senior Maggie Montoya, placing fifth overall with a 6,000-meter time of 20:43.5 The favorites going in, Baylor failed to win its first-ever Big 12 title and dropped back to fifth when senior Peyton Thomas wasn't able to finish.

"It definitely was disappointing, but it was also very humbling and we learned a lot from it," Bradley said. "It just means we have a little redeeming to do. I'd be lying if I said we weren't disappointed, but I think our team as a whole is just such a positive group of girls that it almost gave us that extra strength and that extra boost to keep working hard and just stay dedicated to this season and stay drive to do some great things later on."

That came at the NCAA South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., where the Bears pushed ninth-ranked Arkansas and finished second to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Championships. "I think something that helped us a little bit was not feeling so much pressure and not putting that pressure on ourselves," said Bradley, who finished third in a career-best time of 20:24.6. "I'm super proud of how our girls ran at regionals. Everyone was just really excited to race, and I think that showed."

While the Bears are ranked 23rd in the field of 31 teams for the NCAA Championships, Harbour said he will be disappointed if they don't finish in the top 15.

"I'm just telling them, 'Girls, we've got to go prove ourselves again,''' Harbour said. "I'll be disappointed if we're not top 15, and I think top 10 is definitely doable with this group, if they just run what we've done. If we run a little better than that, we could be even higher. That's exciting to me."

Hoping to get into the Baylor Business School next year, Bradley said she's not sure what she will specialize in, "but something in the business field."

"My experience at Baylor has been a lot different compared to the University of Washington, in the best way possible," she said. "Having that Christian atmosphere is something that I didn't realize could make such a huge difference. Just knowing that your professors are Christians and can incorporate the Word into their curriculum is just so cool to me. Overall, Baylor has just exceeded anything I could have hoped for."

Saturday's meet will begin at 10 a.m., with live streaming and results available at www.FloTrack.org.