Senior Big Sky cross country athlete Bradi Hutchison, from Pocatello, Idaho, took the time out of her schedule at Idaho State to answer some questions with the Big Sky Conference office. Bradi talked about how she got started to running, what she expects for this year’s championships especially with ISU hosting and how it is having her younger sister on the team.

Hutchison was named Big Sky Conference Cross Country Women’s Athlete of the Week on two separate occasions. On Sept. 24, Hutchison was named AOW after finishing 53rd at the Roy Griak Invitational with a time of 21:47.3 in the 6k and on Oct. 11, she won the Color Country Invitational hosted by Southern Utah. She finished the 4k in 14:14.24 ahead of Southern Utah’s Diana Medina.

Hutchison has led the way for ISU in every meet this season.  Idaho State will host the BSC Cross Country Championships on Oct. 29, at the Centennial Course. The women’s race begins at 10 a.m. and the men will follow at 11 a.m.

At last year’s championships in Cheney, Wash., Hutchison finished eighth and as a team ISU was third. The Bengals have never finished better than third place. Erica Wendt-Richardson won the individual championship last season, which is the only individual champion for ISU. In 2002 the last time ISU hosted the championships, the Bengals were seventh.

 

A: In seventh grade my parents made me run cross country to stay in shape for soccer, or at least that’s what they told me. I think they knew that my 5-foot-nothing 70-pound body would never make it very far in soccer. I really didn’t like running until I got into high school when I finally realized that running was what I was good at and really enjoyed. As far the long distances go, I thought all through high school that I would someday be a college miler. My high school coach would always bet me that I would run the long distances. Now here I am, and he was right all along.

A: Actually I was really set on going to Utah State for school and not running in college. I had an injury my senior year and I ran terrible in both cross country and track. My mom wanted me to stay in Pocatello, so I applied for the University Honors Program and they gave me a great first-year scholarship, so that is what initially made me choose ISU. Coach Janssen called me up one day shortly after and offered me books to come join the team, and of course I accepted because I still loved running! I just assumed before that no college coaches would want me to join their team, I am really blessed that Idaho State gave me the opportunity.

 

A: I have so many great memories from my time here at ISU. Just meeting my wonderful boyfriend Zac and my teammates is by far the best memories I have from Idaho State. Winning conference in the indoor 5k in front of my family and friends was better than anything I could have asked for. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to run with such amazing people. That is really what I will remember forever about my time here at ISU.

 

A: This year’s championships will definitely be a difficult one. Over the course of the season our team has really been trying to use our course to our advantage because we have access to it all year long, but after losing our teammate Nicole (Peterson) last week our focus has really changed. I think our biggest focus now is trying to get over this extremely difficult bump in the road, a bump that is possibly the hardest one for a team to get over. I expect, though, that we will be strong and make it through this difficult time and show up to conference ready to run our hardest.

 

A: It’s difficult to answer these questions after all our team has gone through these past few days. At the beginning of my season my goal was to win the cross country championships. I finished eighth last year at Big Sky’s, and normally I should be happy with anything better than that, but because I’m such a competitive person I thought that I would be extremely disappointed about getting anything less than the top three. Now, though, I no longer have personal goals, but rather I really want to run for Nicole and run for the team. I want to do the best I can to bring some encouragement back to our team.

 

A: Simply put, our team goals are to run the best we can. We want to be competitive with the other teams in the Big Sky and shoot for a conference title, but in the back of all of our minds, though, we really want to just work together as a team, and run for Nicole. We know she will be running with us in spirit helping us along the way. Whether we win or lose on paper, just making it through this difficult time and running our hearts out will be a victory for our team.

 

A: It has been so much fun having Kylie on the team this year. She is doing an outstanding job for a freshman. The rest of the team gets a kick out of us because we argue like sisters tend to do, but we can be best friends by the end of practice. Most people don’t get the opportunity to participate in collegiate athletics with their siblings and to have the opportunity has been awesome. I love being the big sister that can show her the ropes before I leave, and hopefully help her to be one of the best runners in the Big Sky one day.

 

A: The first Big Sky Athlete of the Week came as a really big surprise for me because I felt that I had ran subpar race at Griak. I was a little shocked that I got it after a race that was definitely my worst of the season by far, but at the same time it did lift my spirits a little and made me excited to come out and run a better race next time. The second award made me really happy. It’s always really nice to get a little acknowledgement after having a good race.

 

A: Well, I feel like I’m a relatively boring person! I don’t have very many hobbies besides running. I am, though, absolutely obsessed with Disneyland. It may be a little nerdy but I love reading about the history of the park. It is so fascinating to learn about one of the most successful and well known franchises in the world!

 

A: Well for track it has to be at home at Holt Arena, the atmosphere is awesome! As far as cross country goes it would probably have to be Bozeman, their course is flat and fast and a lot of fun.

 

A: It would have to be the Ross Park Drive Inn. It’s only opened in the summer months, but they have something called taco spaghetti that is seriously the best thing since sliced bread.

 

A: If I could go anywhere in the world it would have to be Finland!  I am a quarter Finnish so I think it would be awesome to go to a country that is part of my heritage.

 

A: Well I could honestly never see myself doing any other sport than running. I’m not very coordinated so it would probably be really hard for me to find a sport that I was descent at, so I guess I would choose to do something like cross country skiing. I would probably do better in something like that than basketball.

 

A: Because I’m a runner I have to say Steve Prefontaine for one of them. The other two people would have to be Walt Disney because he was a very interesting person, and Ryan Gosling because I don’t know of any other girl that wouldn’t want to eat dinner with him.