Cross Country starts the season off on a great note, placing second and third at the last two meets they competed in.
Over the weekend, the ladies of the NMU Cross Country team headed out on the road to compete at the Roy Griak Invitational, hosted by the University of Minnesota. The Wildcats raced against over 20 teams and placed third overall. In the meet prior to the Roy Griak, the team traveled down to Green Bay to compete in the Phoenix Open, placing second overall out of nine teams.
“For me it was just really exciting and just to see all the hard work that they’ve done, and I got kind of emotional just watching how great they did. So just super happy and so much fun for them, and they were all so happy,” Head Coach Jenny Ryan said.
Finishing first for the Wildcats and fifth place overall over the weekend, was senior Madi Szymanski, who finished the race with a recorded time of 23:15.
“I can’t say enough about Maddie and what she does for the entire group…I mean that was so great for her and for her to just have the confidence to be able to to get out there and go with that top group. She just believed in herself and believed in her team and went for it,” Coach Ryan said.
Following Szymanski was freshman runner Ashley Choponis, who ran a 23:27, coming in just after Szymanski, taking eighth place overall in the meet. The third finisher for the Wildcats and 14th in the meet overall, was junior Lamar Gordon with a finishing race time of 23:29. Emma Sweeney and Dani Vanlente rounded out the scoring for the Wildcats with times of 24:07 and 24:13, respectively.
“So just watching their toughness, during the race was just inspiring… our freshman Ashley Chopanis. She ended up eighth overall. Lamar, is a junior and she’s kind of quiet back there but slowly picking away, slowly working hard and moving forward, and starting to believe how strong she really is too… then we have that whole group of another four that are switching spots, being numbers four through seven and they’re all strong,” Coach Ryan said.
This will be the third weekend in a row the Wildcats are competing, making it the first time in a long time that the team has gone back-to-back-to-back in races. This weekend the Cats hit the road again, this time traveling down to Kenosha, Wisconsin to race in the Lucian Rosa Invite, where the cats are looking for that top spot. This meet has 23 teams competing, with nine of those teams ranked in the top 25. The Cats will have their work cut out for them on the course, racing for top spots.
“It’ll be good chance for Maddie to kind of see where she’s at, and we have a chance to to beat a few of those teams that are ranked and move us up in the rankings. So, exciting weekend ahead for sure,” Coach Ryan said.
