This past weekend the NMU cross-country team traveled to Midland, Michigan to take part in the Northwood Invite to face off against 10 other teams. The ‘Cats left the meet coming out on top in first place overall with five runners finishing in the top 10.
“It’s a good start to the season for sure … the team ran really well. Ran smart, ran fast, good times for this time of the year, ” Head Coach Jenny Ryan said. “So good signs of things to come … definitely a strong team and a good start to the season.”
First place in the meet was a team effort, but two runners who stood out were third year Madi Szymanski, who was the first to cross the finish line with a time of 18 minutes and 20 seconds. The second runner is first year Ava Maginity who came in second with a time of 18 minutes and 41 seconds.
“Madi [Szymanski] was our top athlete last year, but she is at least a minute faster than she was last year. So that’s really exciting,” Ryan said. “When Ava was a freshman, I knew she would be good but she is really good.”
This is a young team with most of the runners being freshmen and sophomores, and only a few juniors and seniors. Everyone trains together in bigger groups and are bonding as a team early in the season.
“That’s why it’s really exciting for the coming years because in general, the athletes just get faster while they’re here,” Ryan said. “They’re really bonding as a team, as a group, and really training well together.”
This week the team is traveling to East Lansing, MI for the Spartan Invite. At this meets, the team will run 6 kilometers which is the same distance they compete at for regionals and nationals as well.
“[The Spartan Invite will be] a good test for the freshmen because it’ll be their first 6k. They’re a little bit nervous, but it doesn’t really run much different than a 5k, so they’re ready,” Ryan said. “But it’d be good to have them be running in with some packs … it’ll be a good test and a good chance to kind of go forward from here for the rest of the rest of the season.”
The team will travel to Minneapolis the following week for the Roy Griak Invite on Friday, September 22.
