When the NMU track team competed in the Northwood Open, they finished with impressive results–to the tune of three new school records.
Freshman Jessica Trotochaud set a new NMU record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 1:05.49. She placed second overall in the event, 0.2 seconds behind the winner.
“Jessica had a fantastic race in the 400-hurdles. It was her first time out this year, and in high school, they run the 300-hurdles, so it’s quite a bit different,” NMU head coach Tom Barnes said. “She’s just started with the 400-hurdles and she broke our record by 3.5 seconds. It was an all around impressive run.”
Another NMU record was set in the 4×100-meter relay when senior Callie Boik, junior Natalie Bertucci, freshman Brittnee Balbierz and senior Danielle St. Onge ran a 49.64, good for a fourth-place showing.
The final NMU record was set by sophomore Karin Diebold, who leapt to a new record of 10 feet 6 inches in the pole vault, which resulted in a fifth-place finish.
Sophomore Krista Squiers won the javelin competition with a throw of 119-09.0.
Other top three finishers for the ‘Cats were St. Onge, who finished second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.76 seconds, junior Jennifer Wiedmeyer, who finished third in the mile with a time of 5:01.36 and Bertucci, with a third-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles. The Wildcats finished with athletes in both second and third place in two separate events with junior Leslie Luehmann and St. Onge taking the silver and bronze in the long jump, and freshman Michele Bisig and senior Danielle Stein doing the same in the 5,000-meter run.
The team now turns its attention to the two final meets of the year, the UW-Oshkosh Invite on April 26, and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championship May 1-2 at Saginaw Valley University in University Center, Mich.
Running in Wisconsin will give the Wildcats a chance to see competition that they do not go up against with as often as many of their GLIAC opponents. Among the teams that are competing in this upcoming weekend’s meet is the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the reigning Division-III champs.
Barnes said he is using this weekend’s meet as a chance to give some of his girls a break and experiment with running a few people in different events.
“We’re not going all out this weekend because we are keying up for the GLIACs,” Barnes said. “We’re going to use the meet at Oshkosh to get another tune-up before the GLIACs. We like going to Oshkosh because it’s a great warm-up for our conference meet.”
After this weekend’s meet, all eyes will shift to the GLIAC conference meet. Northern finished in 7th at the GLIAC indoor championships in March.
“We’re going to peak at the GLIACs,” Barnes said. “We’re running really good right now and we had a nice week that showed that we are headed in the right direction. We have a few more things to work on and with a little more rest we should do fine.”
