Cross Country

Sophomore Andrea Ostenso almost claimed another school record Saturday when the Wildcats competed at the Alex Wilson Invitational at Notre Dame for their final weekend of the indoor track season.

Ostenso ran 9:29.19 in her first 3,000-meter race of the season, a personal-best and less than a second from the school record of 9:28.56, which has stood since 1986. The performance was good for fourth in the event.

Earlier in the season Ostenso grabbed the school record in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:31.66 at the Meyo Invitational, also hosted by Notre Dame.

Fellow sophomore Jena Pianin checked in right behind her teammate in the 3,000m, finishing fifth at 9:35.67. She ran a season-best time of 9:34.70 at the Gladstein Invitational to open the season, but has been unable to improve on that time in subsequent meets.

Outside of the Cats’ two star sophomores, freshman Isabel Seidel put together another strong performance to finish seventh in the 3,000 meters. Her time of 9:54.38 beat her previous personal-best by roughly 14 seconds and made her the fourth athlete to break 10 minutes in the 3,000m for NU this indoor season.

Junior Rachel Weathered, the sole NU runner entered in the one mile at the meet, showed well with a personal-record of 4:56.42. Weathered has run the fastest one-mile and 3,000-meter times for the Cats this indoor season outside of Ostenso and Pianin.

With a few more positives to take away from their final weekend, the Cats will now take nearly a month off before the beginning of their outdoor season March 20 at the John Mitchell Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Email: [email protected]