After a tumultuous offseason that featured an overhaul of the coaching staff, the Wildcats appear to have found stability at last.
Having embraced the system installed by “new” coach April Likhite, who returned in May for her second stint in Evanston after six years coaching in the Detroit Public Schools, Northwestern has taken to focusing on racing.
So far the results have paid off for the rejuvenated Cats, including a fourth-place finish at the 25-team Fordham Invite and a third-place finish out of 20 teams at Illinois Intercollegiates.
“Although we are upperclassmen, we’re (only now) finally realizing how to race, how to prepare for a race,” senior Celia Franklin said. “And we need all the experience and all the meets we can get to get that practice, so I think it’s good that April’s had us run these meets to prep for it.”
Franklin and junior Carly Brown have proven reliable leaders for NU, and have taken the top two spots for the Cats in every race this season. Their success has helped lessen the absence of junior Allison King, who was expected to be NU’s premier runner this season but only just arrived in Evanston after battling a hearing-related medical issue. She is expected to return to the Cats this week.
The two captains have played off each others’ strengths both in workouts and during races.
Franklin was pleased with how she has run at the end of races, saying “my goal is to stay with Carly as long as I can and then give whatever I have left, which really helps me out a lot.” In turn, Brown said that Franklin “has made me see my weakness, and that I need to finish a lot stronger, and not just run so hard in the middle of the race.”
In a season with only six meets before the Big Ten championships, the Cats have tried to take full advantage of any and all racing opportunities. Likhite has emphasized the importance of nailing down effective tactics through race experience. And while many of NU’s rivals in the Big Ten have just started racing their top runners, the Cats’ best have already competed in three events.
“I think that was really smart on April’s part,” Brown said. “To have waited so long to race, like a lot of the other Big Ten schools do, I think would have just put a lot of pressure on us and we wouldn’t have know exactly where we stood or how well we would have performed, so these smaller meets have been a really good gauge of seeing how well we’re doing and where our fitness level is.”
The race early, race often strategy is part of Likhite’s plan to lift the Cats out of the Big Ten cellar, where they have resided for two years. NU also has spent time focusing on hill training, preparing for the undulating Big Ten Championship course at Ohio State, while keeping an overall focus on commitment to the team and the program. In a conference in which six teams are ranked in the top 15 nationally, Likhite has made it a goal to finish seventh or eighth in the Big Ten.
“As of right now, I told the girls we are not an 11th-place team. At all,” Likhite said. “We are not. At this point, we’re not ready to break into the top five, but you can only improve on 11th and we’re going to do that. We’re definitely better than 11th place.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
