Competing in a field featuring some of the nation’s top teams, Northwestern knew the pace would be fast and the packs would be deep.
When the front group went out hard early in the Gold Division 6K race at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minn., the young NU team got drawn out too quickly and wound up paying the price in the final kilometers.
“The most positive thing we can take from race is the importance of running smart in the beginning,” coach April Likhite said. “We were a little too excited and a little too aggressive early. Part of that is youth, but we need to learn how to approach big races like this.”
In the team’s first big invitational of the year, the Wildcats finished 12th out of 17 teams in the event. NU scored 293 points, well behind champion Iowa State, which scored only 31 points. Big Ten rivals No. 8 Minnesota and No. 17 Michigan State finished second and third, respectively.
The Cats were hurt by the loss of Allegra Mayer, who did not finish the race. Mayer, NU’s top finisher in the team’s first two meets of the season, was pulled from the race at around the 4.5K mark. Likhite said it appeared Mayer was dehydrated.
Freshman Audrey Huth led the Cats with her 36th place finish. Huth covered the course in 23:10. For a young runner like Huth, a major collegiate invitational like Griak is important in her development.
Trying to keep pace in a field full of accomplished runners could help Huth learn to keep pushing hard even when the competition is less spectacular.
“This was a great opportunity for her to be amongst many all-Big Ten runners, all-Americans,” Likhite said. “It was a good challenge for her.”
Although Huth said she has room for improvement, she felt she ran better Saturday than in her season debut two weeks ago.
“There’s definitely a lot I want to improve on,” Huth said. “I need to push my last 2K a lot harder, but I felt solid compared to my first race.”
Sophomore Hallie Busta and senior Paulina Garcia were the next NU runners across the finish line. Busta took 48th in 23:35, a second ahead of Garcia.
Sophomore Rachel Kaminski was NU’s fourth finisher, while sophomore Rachel Edwards rounded out the scoring for the Cats with her 95th place finish.
As the race wore on, the Cats were hurt by their aggressive starts and began falling back.
“What we need to remember is everybody feels great in the first mile,” Likhite said. “Typically between the 3K and 5K marks in a 6K race is where you feel it. The excitement of the big race and the fact that the front of the field went out kind of sucked our team into it, too.”
On Saturday, NU also sent a team to the Forester Invitational at Lake Forest College. This NU squad took third out of the 11 teams at the meet. Freshman Janelle Li-A-Ping led the team with her 15th place finish. Likhite said her performance was a “huge leap” forward. Fellow freshman Ashley Greenwell took 20th while Kaley Stroup took 22nd for the Cats.
