After finishing a dismal seventh two weeks ago at the Big Ten championships, Northwestern women’s cross country runner Rachel Evjen said that “in the long run this race really won’t matter.”
As odd as it might seem, she was right.
The Wildcats rebounded from their worst performance of the year to finish second Saturday at the NCAA Midwest Regional championships in Normal.
With the top two teams receiving automatic bids to the NCAA championships, which start Nov. 25 in Terre Haute, Ind., the Cats now have accomplished something that was unthinkable four years ago when the team received varsity status — racing on the national level.
While Missouri was the clear winner, easily beating the field of 23 teams with a score of 63 points, it was unclear which team would take second place. NU had to wait 45 minutes after the race while officials tallied up the scores.
When the results came out, the next three teams were separated by a mere 14 points. The Cats topped this group with a score of 139, closely followed by Southwest Missouri State, with 145 points, and Bradley, which finished with 153 points.
All five runners who scored points for NU set new personal bests.
Seniors Evjen and Laura Evans both topped their personal career marks, en route to earning All-District honors by finishing in 7th and 20th places. Evjen smashed her previous personal record by 20 seconds.
Diana Hossfeld and Nicole Kuznia also set new career bests and were the next NU runners to cross the finish line. Hossfeld, a sophomore, finished with a time of 21:32 — fast enough to earn her 22nd place overall. Kuznia’s time of 21:47 gave her 37th place.
Emily Blakeslee, who missed all of last season due to injury, closed out the scoring for NU with a time of 22:08 — a personal best for the season.
“I think that we rose to the occasion,” NU head coach Amy Tush said. “They’ve always had the potential, and today they laid it all out on the line.”
At the Big Ten championships, NU got off to a very slow start from which it never recovered.
So this week, Tush challenged her team to come out of the blocks a little faster.
“Personally, I’m stronger mentally if I can see (other runners) ahead of me, and focus on them like that,” Evjen said.
“I like to pick people off. But coach wanted us to take a risk.”
The risk paid off.
Instead of being in the back of the pack, the Cats stayed within the top-three teams for most of the race. Evjen even led all runners through the first three kilometers.
“This time we went out and were in front of the race,” Hossfeld said. “That made it easier because we were right in it from the start. We just had to hold our position.”
NU will only have a few days to enjoy its victory. Monday, Nov. 25th marks the first time the Cats will compete in the NCAA championship meet since their return to varsity status in 1998.
In a field of the best 31 teams in the nation, the Cats have their work cut out for them.
“Just being (at the national meet) was our goal,” Hossfeld said. “We’ve never thought about what we would do when we get there. For now we’re just living in the moment.”
