North Michigan News

The Northern Michigan University women's cross country team is set to compete in the GLIAC Cross Country Championship on Saturday, October 25. The event will take place at the Calvin University Cross Country Course in Grand Rapids and is hosted by Davenport. The race is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

The Wildcats recently achieved a first-place finish at the Royals Challenge in Charlotte, North Carolina, and had strong individual performances at the Husky Invitational in Houghton last week. Currently, Northern Michigan is ranked No. 15 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Poll, which matches their highest ranking this season. This week, they moved up to fourth in the Midwest Region.

Head coach Jenny Ryan commented on the team's preparation: "From what I've heard, the course runs similarly to Parkside, which is where we've run already, and then where our regionals and nationals will be. Right now, we're sitting in number two behind Grand Valley in the GLIAC. So really the goal will be to see if we can get up closer to Grand Valley and then also make sure we're ahead of those other teams."

Northern Michigan opened its season with a second-place finish at the Phoenix Open hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. Senior Madi Szymanski led with a fifth-place time of 22:14.8, while freshman Ashley Choponis finished seventh in her collegiate debut.

At the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota, NMU placed third out of 24 teams, marking their best result there since 2016. Szymanski again led with a fifth-place finish, followed by Choponis in eighth.

The Wildcats continued their season with a fourth-place finish at the Lucian Rosa Invitational in Wisconsin and later won their only 5K race of the year at the Royals Challenge. During that event, Szymanski broke a 25-year-old program record with a time of 17:18.7.

NMU’s depth was evident as five runners finished under 18 minutes at the Royals Challenge—an achievement unmatched by any other team in that field.

At last week's Husky Invitational, nine Wildcats competed individually and secured several top-10 finishes.

This season marks several milestones for Northern Michigan: they appeared in the USTFCCCA National Poll for the first time since 2019; senior Madi Szymanski earned back-to-back GLIAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week honors; and it was their first season since 2021 finishing in the top ten at every meet entered.

Last year at this championship event, NMU finished seventh out of eleven conference teams.