CHICAGO — Twenty-two yellow ribbons, tied around the ponytails of the Northwestern women’s cross country team, soared across the Chicago skyline Saturday.
Although the ribbon tradition started as a memorial to Sept. 11, the ribbons now served a second purpose at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational — the markers allowed the women to distinguish their teammates from the competition, many of whom, surprisingly, were clad in purple uniforms similar to those of the Wildcats.
The yellow ribbons were scattered toward the front of the pack as NU finished fourth out of 17 Division I teams at the meet, hosted by Loyola and held on the Montrose Beach course. Big Ten rival Wisconsin was the overall winner.
“The girls raced really well as a team,” said coach Amy Tush. “There was a 41-second split between numbers one through five. Our No. 3 runner finished just a few seconds behind our No. 2. Everyone else just followed in line.”
Before the race, Tush advised the women to start off fast to secure a position in the front of the competition. The Loyola course narrows down within the first 200 or 300 meters, Tush said, and because 560 runners need to squeeze through a couple of trees 30 feet apart, it was important to quickly separate from the pack. The women heeded her advice.
“We had to work on getting out because there were so many girls in the race,” Hossfeld said. “We didn’t want to get caught in the herd.”
Hossfeld was the first NU runner to finish, placing 14th as she completed the 5K race in 18:06. Seniors Emily Blakeslee, Nora Colligan, and Nicole Kalogeropoulos were NU’s next three finishers, with freshman Casey Shea rounding out the top five.
Unique to this meet was that the entire squad raced together. This only happens once a year, Tush said.
“It’s good to see everyone competing on the same day in the same race,” Tush said. “A meet situation where you’re competing against your whole team is a good estimation of where you are compared to the team. It’s a good way to see who is where and who competes well in competition.”
Hossfeld said that with the whole group together, there was a lighter atmosphere and less pressure to perform well than in past meets. Kalogeropoulos agreed.
“It was nice for the whole team to run together,” said Kalogeropoulos. “We just needed to regroup after our previous competitions.”
In two weeks the women will compete at the Pre-National Invitational in Cedar Falls, Iowa, against runners from the best teams in the country. With less than half the regular season left, Tush said the team is approaching that meet in a strong position.
“We could definitely surprise people at Pre-Nationals,” Tush said. “We control our destiny — and I like having that control. There is no pressure, no expectation, just pure guts. We have to just go out and run like we do in practice.”
