Behind six individual first-place finishes for the second consecutive meet, the Northern Michigan University Women’s Track and Field team took first place at the Pointer Invitational that was hosted by UW-Stevens Point last weekend. NMU finished with a team total of 161 points, besting runner-up UW-Stevens Point by eight points. Coach Jenny Ryan saw improvement this past meet and is hopeful for the upcoming GLIAC Championships in a few weeks.

“It was a good meet for the team,” Ryan said. “We definitely improved some times, and had some great performances, and some good competitions. I was happy with how our athletes competed against each other. [They] went hard and ran hard. We didn’t get as many personal records but we had some great races with good jumps, good throws [and] good performances all around. We’re definitely heading in the right direction.”

Senior Shayla Huebner has an impressive showing for the Wildcats, as she took home the 400-meter title with a time of 57.19 seconds, as well as earning a provisional time. Two more Wildcats weren’t far behind, as senior Paige Dutcher finished second and junior Paige Du Bois placed fifth.

However, Huebner wasn’t done yet as she won the 200-meter with a time of 26.01 seconds, with junior Sydney McPeters and Dutcher following right behind in second and third place.

In the field events, senior Michelle Juergen took home the high jump title for the second meet in a row, clearing 5 feet, 6 inches and tying her season best provisional mark. Juergen also placed third in the long jump, while sophomore Dunja Drobac took fifth place competing in the triple jump.

NMU was a force in the mile run as well, as they finished in first and second place. Sophomore Elise Longley had the winning time of 5:16.57, and claiming second place at 5:25:39 was freshman Anna Kelley.

In the 3,000 meter run, four Wildcats placed in the top five while senior Abby Fifarek came in as the runner-up at 10:51.78. Not far behind were junior Hanna Torvi, Kelley and Longley, as they rounded out the top of the podium.

In the sprinting events, sophomore Izabelle Peterson led the ‘Cats once again, winning the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.78 seconds. McPeters had a good showing as well as she placed third with a time of 7.91 seconds. In the 60-meter hurdles, sophomore Nina Augsten won the event in 9.41 seconds. NMU would gain one more top-five finish of the day when the 4×400-meter relay team of junior Megan Martin, senior Lynsey Collins, freshman Hannah Jones and freshman Sydney Ormsbee took third place with a time of 4:09.77.

This weekend, the Wildcats travel to Grand Valley State University to compete in the GVSU Big Meet, an event that has a GLIAC Championships feel to it.

“It’s a high-level meet, and Friday is the elite part of the meet that you actually had to qualify for,” Ryan said. “[Only] 12 athletes will compete on that day, and everyone else plus them will compete on Saturday, but both meets are really a lot of competition and high-quality races. It’ll [help] get us prepared for the conference championships.”