The Northern Michigan University women’s track and field team was in Stevens Point, Wis. on Saturday, Feb. 2 competing at the Pointer Invitational where the Wildcats earned four first-place finishes during the meet.
Sophomore Brittni Wirtz competed in two events over the weekend. Wirtz took first place in the 60-meter dash with a time 7.88 seconds. Wirtz also competed in the 200-meter dash and ran for a time of 26.45 seconds, which earned her a fourth-place spot in the event.
Wirtz also tied her overall best time for the 200-meter competition and said she was really happy with how everyone performed.
“Everyone did really good this weekend,” Wirtz said. “A lot of people got their best records and every one seemed to have been really excited with how their races went.”
In the 400-meter relay seniors Brooke Granquist and Colby West and junior Sydney Schultz along with sophomore Caitlin Keskey ended up in third place with a time of 4:17.87.
Juniors Mallory Celaya and Evelyne Ruiz and sophomore Emily Allen competed in the 3000-meter run. Celaya ran a time of 10:53.96, which was good enough to get her into the top five.
Allen came in 12th place with a time of 11:10.78, while Ruiz followed in 13th place while running for a time of 11:11.92. The 5,000-meter run included junior Chelsea Farquhar, sophomore Olivia Howard and seniors Rita Woitas and Brittany Loomis.
The Wildcats took the top three spots with Farquhar winning with a time of 18:47.04. Howard took second with a time of 19:18.32. Rounding out the top three was Woitas, who ran a time of 19:26.34. Loomis placed eighth in the event with a time of 20:33.22.
Senior and captain Delaney Lovett competed in the triple jump and was just .15 meters short of taking first place.
With a leap of 10.78 meters, Lovett took second place. Lovett said she is happy with the result but said she knows she can do better.
“It wasn’t my best jump.” Lovett said. “It was good enough to get me a second place finish. I know I can do better. I am going to be working on my approach this week and get myself ready for next weekend’s event.”
The distance medley also was a success for the lady ’Cats as they won the event. Sophomores Katie Granquist and Larissa Halonen, along with freshmen Jaylee Brown and Abby Roche competed in the event and ran for a time of 13:11.51.
Junior Cheyenne Stewart participated in two events at the Pointer Invitational. Stewart competed in the long jump where she made a leap of 5.53 meters and took first place. She also participated in the high jump where she placed second after jumping 1.61 meters. Stewart said she was pleased with how she and her squad performed this last weekend but knows there is still a lot of work to do in between now and the end of the season.
“We still have a long way to go in terms of training,” Stewart said. “We have a lot of strength training and a lot to accomplish before we head towards our conference meet.”
For the Indoor Pentathlon, Brooke Granquist placed second after falling just 139 points short UW-Eau Claire’s Kelsey Weigel.
During the pentathlon, Brooke Granquist competed in the 800-meter run where she took first place with a time of 2:34.27.
Granquist also came in third place for the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 10.02 seconds. She finished the pentathlon with total score of 2931 points.
The Wildcats will be on the road again on Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday Feb. 9 to compete in Allendale, Mich. at the Grand Valley State University Big Meet.
