The Wildcats competed hard in Champaign, and head into the NCAA Regionals ready for the challenge.
The last time Northwestern cross country was active, the Wildcats dominated the Bradley Pink Classic. In the Women’s White Race, Northwestern put three runners in the top 15, including both Mia Mraz (first) and Serena Frolli (fifth) in the top five. Then in the women’s red race, the Wildcats did the exact same thing. Ava Earl paced the field with a scorching 20:14.33, Maddy Whitman took a well-earned fourth place finish and first-year Ava Criniti also ended up in the top 15. In short, Northwestern won “literally everything there was to win” and set itself up in prime position to achieve great things in the postseason.
After the Big Ten Championships, it’s pretty clear that the Wildcats will achieve those great things. While the seventh place finish may not look tremendous on paper, there’s a lot of qualifiers to keep in mind. Firstly, every single team to finish ahead of Northwestern was a top 26 team in the final USTFCCCA poll before conference championship week. That includes No. 2 Washington (second), No. 11 Wisconsin (third), and No. 17 Oregon (first). Also, the last time Northwestern ran the Champaign, Illinois course, back at the Big Ten preview on Sept. 13, not a single Wildcat runner broke 20:17.
And, my goodness, did that change. Earl, the spectacular senior who already had NCAA Championships experience, was the leader in that Sept. 13 meet with a time of 20:17.30. On Friday, she ran 19:42.2. At the 1/3 mark of the course (1960 meters), Earl was all the way back in 31st. She finished in 14th. For her efforts, Earl shattered her previous personal best, breaking 20 minutes in the 6k run for the first time in her career. She also earned Second Team All-Big Ten, a richly deserved honor for one of the best runners in program history.
Earl wasn’t the only Northwestern runner to put up a career day. Chloe Wellings, the graduate student out of England, nearly broke 20 as well, finishing in 20:05.7. Her previous personal best was 20:38.3, set at that aforementioned Bradley Pink Classic. On that day in October, Wellings finished 13th. On Friday, going against the best runners the nation had to offer, she finished 33rd.
The “breaking a personal best” phase appeared to be contagious, as it also happened for Whitman. Wellings’ fellow Englishwoman battled with the middle of the pack for most of the race, and earned a 47th place finish with a tremendous time of 20:15.6. That snaps Whitman’s previous high-water mark by only nine seconds. But keep in mind, on Oct. 17, her personal best was over 21 minutes. Once again, all of the Wildcats are peaking as the season really begins to turn to fall.
As for the other two runners, our readers may be asking whether they set personal bests as well. Of course they did. Criniti nearly broke 20:20 for the first time in her career, but her time of 20:20.5 was good enough to snap her previous best by 12 seconds and earn the redshirt first-year a 54th place spot. Jackie Holman also showed off the success of the team’s youth movement, as the sophomore set a new personal best for the third straight outing. Her time of 20:24.9 was good enough for 58th (55th if individual runners aren’t included), making Northwestern one of just six teams to put five runners in the top 60.
The other Northwestern runners were Katherine Hessler, Skye Ellis, Holly Smith, Anna Hightower, Fiona Lenth and Mraz. Hessler was trapped in 85th about a third of the way through the race, but rallied thanks to an incredibly strong middle third and earned a well-deserved 65th place finish. Ellis, meanwhile, was all the way in 101st with only about 2,000 meters to go. She responded by passing 19 runners, including 15 in the final kilometer, to earn an 85th-place spot. Her 20:48 time was short of her personal record, but only by three-tenths of a second.
Smith continued the trend of keeping the ‘Cats in the top 100, as her time of 20:54.2 was good enough for 94th. Hightower battled constantly to stay in that zone, but was able to hold off a lot of challengers and finish 95th in 20:55.4. Lenth and Mraz both started near the back of the pack, starting in 182nd and 183rd out of 191 runners. But both continued the team trend of finishing strong, with Lenth passing 26 runners and Mraz passing 20. Their times of 21:53.7 and 22:15, respectively, were good enough for 156th and 163rd.
So, basically every Northwestern runner is either snapping their personal bests like dry spaghetti, passing multiple runners every kilometer, or both. That seems good. But the Wildcats aren’t just good. They’re national contenders, as the six votes they received in that aforementioned USTFCCCA poll demonstrate. And they’ll have a chance to prove just how high they can climb (or rather, just how fast they can run) at the NCAA Regional on Nov. 15. That meet is in Peoria, the same course that the Wildcats dominated at the Bradley Pink Classic just a few weeks ago. And this team has already set a pattern of its second try at a course being even better than its first. If that trend holds, don’t be surprised if Earl isn’t the only Northwestern runner punching her ticket to the NCAA Championships.