They finally got the respect they deserve.
After a 13th-place finish Saturday at the Pre-National Invitational, Northwestern’s runners burst into the women’s cross country national rankings Monday at No. 27.
It marks is the first time the Wildcats have been ranked since cross country returned to varsity status at NU in 1998.
Indiana State hosted 106 teams for the Pre-National meet held in Terre Haute, Ind.
The Cats ran in one of three smaller groups and were again led by senior Rachel Evjen, who finished 32nd overall with a time of 21:16.5. She was only four seconds shy of her personal record for a 6-kilometer race.
NU’s next three runners finished within a second of each other.
The group was led by senior Nicole Kuznia, who clocked in at 21:56.5. She was followed by senior Laura Evans, with a time of 21:57.1, and sophomore Diana Hossfeld, who finished in 21:57.4.
With less than a kilometer to go, Kuznia was fourth for NU, behind Hossfeld and Evans. But she caught up to her teammates and encouraged them to pick up the pace.
“That was the key to our race on Saturday, ” NU head coach Amy Tush said. “Nicole had that much confidence to come around and literally pull her teammates up. That’s what we’ve needed all year.”
No. 2 Stanford dominated NU’s field of 37 teams, scoring 57 points. The only Big Ten team to beat NU was No. 3 Michigan State with 367 points. The Cats finished with 414 points.
NU now will be able to focus on the meat of its schedule. The biggest goal for the squad is a berth into the NCAA championships, which will be held Nov. 25th in Terre Haute.
To accomplish this, the Cats would either need to finish in the top two at the NCAA regional tournament Nov. 16th or score an at-large bid.
Either way, the Cats will need a strong showing in their next race, the Big Ten tournament.
NU is going into the Nov. 3 tournament with high — but attainable — goals.
“We would like to place in the top three,” Tush said. “If we run with the same desire, confidence and intensity that we had this weekend, we could possibly get into the top two.
“It’ll be a dogfight.”
