The Wildcat women’s cross country team will be competing in the Conference Crossover Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 10 in Chicago.

The ’Cats jumped from No. 20 to No. 9 in last week’s U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association after placing second in the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday Sept. 26.

“It was exciting for the team to be ranked up high in the country again this past week,”  head coach Jenny Ryan said. “It is great to have a team competing at a high level. We still have work to do and some time until we actually get to the bigger meets, but it is nice for people to recognize that we have a strong team this year.”

Ryan added that last weekend was NMU’s first weekend off from racing in awhile and the team was able to get in almost two weeks of solid training.

At the Conference Crossover, the ’Cats will be competing against schools from both the GLIAC and GMAC Conferences.

“This meet will run on a flat, fast course so we have been preparing for some fast times,” Ryan said. “We are still at a fairly high level of training as we still have some time until the championship events.”

The team had a few days of recovery runs before completing some tough workouts that included hills and speed to prepare for the invitational.

The Wildcats competed in the Roy Griak Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 26, placing second.

Sophomore Kameron Burmeister was the highest finisher for the Wildcats, finishing 11th with a time of 23:08.8.

“The season is going very well and we are now getting ready for our big meets of the season like conference and regionals,” Burmeister said.

Freshman Sophie McDonald was the next Wildcat to finish, placing 15th with a time of 23:14.3.

The Wildcats totaled 93 points, with the University of Minnesota-Duluth claiming the title with 83 points.

“We were very close to Minnesota-Duluth at the last meet and they have been consistently ranked number four in the country,” Ryan said.

Sophomore Caroline Brisbos finished 22nd, senior Megan Edic finished 27th, and sophomore Vivian Hett finished 28th to round out the Northern Michigan top five.

“The team looks strong and we work really well together,” Burmeister said. “We are heading to Chicago this weekend where we will see some teams from our region so it will be good to see where we fall in the lineup.”

Ryan and the team are confident about the rest of the season.

“It has been a great year for us so far and we look to continue to compete strong at each meet and stay focused on running well,” Ryan said.