Last weekend, the Wildcats placed first for the first time this season after countless top finishes.
The team took first out of 18 as the team headed out to North Carolina to race in the Royals Challenge.
“Yeah, it was a great weekend…it was good competition,” Head Coach Jenny Ryan said.
Of the 18 teams, a handful of those were ranked teams, including Wingate and Catawba, as well as some Division I teams.
Coming in first for the Wildcats was none other than Madi Syzmanski, who placed third overall in the race with a time of 17:18. This time broke the previous NMU school record for fastest 5k time that was set 20 years ago.
“My whole team ran PR’s…they ran, they went out hard, they ran, they stayed in it, and they they pushed all the way to the end. So they did exactly kind of what we talked about. We just kind of saw what we could do and it was really impressive,” Ryan said.
Joining Syzmanski in top PR finishes for the Wildcats was freshman Ashley Choponis, who took fourth place overall and the second Wildcat to cross the finish line. Choponis ended the race with a finishing time of 17:26. The last Wildcat coming in the top ten of the race was junior Emma Sweeney, who ran in for the ninth overall spot, ending with a final race time of 17:40.
Following the heat of these first NMU runners, another big group of Wildcats crossed the finish line seconds later. This group was led by senior Beverly Harper, clocking a time of 17:50, just ten seconds behind Sweeney, earning Harper the number 13 spot overall in the meet. On the heels of Harper, placing 15th overall, was fellow Wildcat senior Sophia Potter with an end time of 17:52.
Following behind Harper and Potter, three more Wildcats came in the top 30. First up in this group for the Cats was Lamar Gordon. The junior ran a time of 18:03, followed by junior Dani VanLente and finally sophomore Madalyn Agren, coming in at the 27th spot.
“Definitely really exciting. And then the great thing is that we really have seven that are strong…the strength goes all the way through number seven, which is what you want in cross country. That’s where I think we’re stronger than a lot of the teams in the country even, you know, that have five. We have seven. So we definitely have a solid five and six, and seven could take the place of any of those number four and number five. So that’s exciting,” Ryan said.
Following the Wildcats’ first first-place finish of the season, the team now looks ahead to the next meet. Lucky for the Wildcats, travel will be short as the team gears up for Tech week, as the two rivals are set to race this weekend in Houghton. This will be the Cats’ last race of the season before heading into GLIAC and NCAA post season at the end of the month.
“Make sure we’re ahead of those other teams. But run like we’ve been running, get out smart running, you know, we’ve been running in packs, which has been huge…but then also, challenging themselves to see what they can do and, get prepared for the regionals and then hopefully nationals,” Ryan said.
