With its top seven runners getting the weekend off from racing, Northwestern was able to showcase some of its future talent Saturday at the Forester Invitational in Vernon Hills, Ill. Facing a plethora of Division III opponents, the Wildcats were anticipating a high finish in the 12-team invite.
Despite solid individual performances, placing all of their scoring runners in the top 30, the Cats ended up in fifth place with 83 points, just two back of fourth-place University of Chicago. Illinois Institute of Technology won the meet with 61 points.
“We had quite a gap between our third and fourth (runners), and I think that’s what hurt us overall,” NU coach April Likhite said. “We were hoping to do much better. I think we could have ended up much higher, but overall I think it was a good meet for the team.
Freshman Maddie Rozwat led the charge for NU, coming back from a minor knee injury to run a 19:39 in the 5K, good for fourth place overall.
Rozwat, the Cats’ leading freshman this season, is expected to rejoin NU’s top seven as soon as this Friday’s adidas Invitational.
“I definitely think the injury probably affected me a little bit, but I did some cross training during the week,” Rozwat said. “I definitely have some room to improve. (But) I’m excited for the next race, because it’ll be more competitive and I think I can improve a lot.”
Lauren Maddox and Megan Young came in next for the Cats, finishing just five seconds apart and placing 16th and 17th place overall.
Young, who ran for Likhite while growing up in suburban Detroit, has had her share of struggles this season, twisting an ankle at the beginning of the season and only recently taking a short period of time off to allow it to heal. But last week, just as her ankle was improving, the junior and former NU soccer player came down with a cold and suffered an asthma attack.
Naturally, she was back racing just a few days later.
“She’s tough as nails,” Likhite said of Young. “And when I saw her come by me with about 1,000 meters to go, she was sounding pretty bad. But she just ran through it. She’s for sure one of our top nine.”
Rounding out the scoring for NU were junior Kate Cline and sophomore Carla Wirtschafter, who, like Maddox and Young, finished in consecutive slots, at 27th and 28th.
With just a 45-second split between the second- and fifth-place finishers for the Cats, the competition for the coveted ninth and final spot on varsity is likely to persist and intensify in the weeks leading to the Big Ten championships on Oct. 28. The impending return of Allison King, one of NU’s best runners in 2006, won’t make the decision any easier for Likhite, who’s back coaching in the college ranks for the first time since 2001.
“I think Lauren Maddox definitely could be in our top nine, (but) it’s going to be close now,” Likhite said. “I probably couldn’t tell you right now who our top nine will be a month from now when we have to pick our Big Ten team.”
Reach Ben Larrison at [email protected].
