The Northwestern cross country team knew it was in for a long weekend before leaving Chicago Friday for the Roy Griak Invitational.

After waiting three hours to take off from O’Hare International Airport, the Wildcats were informed of a malfunction on the plane and were forced to board a new one. When they finally got to the six-kilometer course in Minneapolis Friday night it was dark, making the team’s usual course run-through difficult.

The Cats’ troubles continued on Saturday when, 20 minutes before the race, junior Catie LaBracke realized she forgot her shirt, spikes and bib number at the hotel. Coach Amy Tush sped back to find LaBracke’s misplaced gear.

“I got back just in time,” Tush said. “She literally got her stuff on 30 seconds before the gun.”

Putting the problems behind them, the Cats finished 12th out of 22 teams at the prestigious tournament. Michigan State won the team title with 72 points.

The big story for NU was the performance of senior Rachel Evjen, who finished 30th overall in her first race of the season after sitting out the first two with an injured knee. She was the first NU runner to finish, with a time of 21:58.6.

“That’s not where she should be,” Tush said. “But we will be a much better team in three weeks.”

Senior Nicole Kuznia, who has been the Cats’ top contributor this season, finished 48th — and second on the squad — with a time of 22:16.4. The Minnesota-native had expected a large home crowd to cheer her on, but she said the opening weekend of duck season substantially thinned the crowd.

Tush was pleased with Kuznia’s performance.

“Nicole has been an excellent team leader this year,” Tush said. “If someone were to get MVP, it’d be her.”

Kuznia was a little harder on herself.

“I really wanted to be in the top 30,” she said. “I worked too hard this summer to be mediocre.”

NU’s competition Saturday — including nationally ranked Minnesota, Arizona State and Michigan State — was among the toughest it will face all year.

NU will be tested again Friday at the Notre Dame Invitational. Notre Dame and Stanford, both top-5 nationally ranked teams, will be in attendance. Indiana, which finished fifth at the Roy Griak Invitational, also will run.

For the Cats to do well, they will have to take advantage of the shorter five-kilometer course. But Kuznia doesn’t think that will be a problem.

he shorter (the courses get), the better I am,” she said.