As the weather finally warms up, the NMU Wildcats track and field team travelled south to Ill. for a pair of meets over the weekend in the Big Blue Outdoor Opener and the inaugural Joyce Morton-Kief Invite. When the dust settled after both meets, the Wildcats walked away with four total first place finishes and 19 overall top-five spots.

While Northern did not record a team score at the Big Blue Outdoor Opener in Decatur, Ill., Danielle Lund would open the podium spots with a gold medal in both the discus and hammer throws. Her 42.03m discus mark and 52.41m hammer toss claimed the top spot, while Caterina Thelen added another NMU representative at the podium with a third place discus throw of 38.99m.

While the ‘Cats would fail to take any more golds in Decatur, Northern Michigan turned heads in Normal, Ill. and dominated at the Joyce Morton Kief Invite in the steeple events. In both the 3000m and the 5000m steeple, the Wildcats would sweep all four spots on both podiums, with Dani VanLente and Madi Szymanski taking the first place spot times of 11:33.57 and 17:20.65 respectively. Celia Wallace, Anya VanSweeden, and Paige Anderson took the two through four spots in the 3000m event. Sophia Potter, Ashley Choponis, and Madalyn Agren were the runner-ups in the 5000m race.

As a team, NMU would finish fourth overall out of 11 total squads, trailing the hosting Illinois State Redbirds, Northern Illinois, and DePaul. The Wildcats would finish the meet with one other top-three finish, Lamar Gordon, setting a personal record in the 1500m with a time of 4:36.78 — good for third overall.

The weekend proved to be a springboard for the team overall, and gave the Wildcats some reps for the upcoming outdoor season. “It was a good start for the team. We had a lot of great results, a lot of PRs, a lot of top 10 movements on our top 10 list. It’s a great start to see where we’re at for the year, for the outdoor season overall,” track and field head coach Jenny Ryan said. “Our throwers did really well this weekend. And Danielle Lund, she won the hammer and the discus, and her hammer throw was pretty close to the NCAA provisional mark.”

With both meets in the books, the Wildcats turn their attention towards another Midwestern meet, still saying south of the Upper Peninsula in La Crosse, Wis. NMU will compete in the Ashton May Invite at Wisconsin-La Crosse’s facilities. The all-day event will officially kick off on Friday, April 3.