The Northern Michigan University Cross Country team pulled out in first among  non-NCAA Division I teams at their first meet of the season at the Wisconsin-Parkside Godfrey Cross Country Open hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Sept. 9.

The team finished with two runners in the top 10 in a field of 163 athletes. Senior Kameron Burmeister took fourth with a time of 17:55.50 and sophomore Katelyn Smith came in 10th with a time of 18.27.

Head coach Jenny Ryan said she was pleased with how the first race went.

“It went great for the first meet of the season. We definitely had some really good, positive results and strong showing for this early in the season and actually missing a few of our top athletes who didn’t compete this weekend,” Ryan said. “I was really happy with how the team competed and performed.”

Some of the other top finishers for the Wildcats were senior Kieren Becker in 13th with a time of 18:42.2, junior Abby Fifarek in 16th with a time of 18:48.2 and sophomore Hanna Torvi who placed 54th
with a time of 19:46.8.

Kameron Burmeister said the race was a fun course since the team hadn’t been there since she was a freshman in college and the course is made just for cross country even though the whole team wasn’t there.

“It’s fun to see at a actual, real competition what our team can do together…To place second was really exciting and shows how much depth our team potentially has this
season,” Burmeister said.

Ryan said she would like to keep building on what they have been doing and learn what the girls have done well and what they can keep working on.

“Every race I tell the athletes you can learn something from every race,” said Ryan. “We’ve been training hard up to this point and we’ll continue to do that for a couple more weeks until we cut back a bit before the bigger races.”

Ryan said that there are things they are going to work on before the next race such as speed, strength and going out at the right pace, but that she is excited for the season.

“This is going to be a really exciting year,” Ryan said. “I think it’s one of the strongest teams we’ve ever
had here at Northern Michigan. With three really strong seniors and some underclassmen that trained well this past summer and have made a big move up, it’s
going to to be a fun year to see. I think we have a pretty good chance at qualifying for the national championships again.”

Cross Country will hit the trails next at the
Spartan Invite on Saturday Sept. 16.