Cross Country

Northwestern sent nine runners to the University of Illinois’ Orange and Blue Open on Saturday for the last meet of the indoor season, and the Wildcats returned prepared for the outdoor season.

Coach ‘A Havahla Haynes said the meet represented progress for the Cats, whose main goal this indoor season was to get fit for outdoor competition in the spring while staying healthy.

“In terms of competition, we had women who ran as well as they had been running or better, and that is always good for our program,” Haynes said.

Sophomore Isabel Seidel headlined the weekend, returning from an injury-induced absence of nearly one year to edge out all other Cats for first place in the 3,000-meter competition.

Seidel made an immediate impact on the team during her freshman campaign, even qualifying to run in the Big Ten Championships in the fall of 2014. However, late in the 2015 outdoor season she sustained an injury that kept her off of the track until Saturday.

The fact Seidel was returning from injury made this meet especially significant for her, Haynes said.

“Isabel Seidel had a good meet,” she said. “She had been injured for about a year and we took a long time trying to get her healthy. She came back and in her first race of the season won her heat in the 3K.”

Seidel was joined in the 16-person 3K field by seven other Cats. Junior Andrea Ostenso finished second with a time of 10:08.26, which was just 3 seconds behind Seidel’s time of 10:05.15.

Also finishing in the top-seven of the 3,000-meter race were senior Allison Jacobsen (10:32.61), junior Ellen Schmitz (10:36.15) and sophomore Brooke Pigneri (10:38.83). The final Cats in the race were freshman Grace Kelly and junior Hannah Rose who finished with times of 11:08.67 and 11:20.47, respectively.

The lone competitor for NU in the 800-meter race was sophomore Victoria Bianco, who finished 15th with a time of 2:33.34.

This was the fourth and final meet of the indoor season for the Cats who are now pivoting toward the outdoor season, which begins with the San Francisco State Distance Carnival on April 2.

“I think in most of the meets we were competitive, and as we head to outdoor our goals are to go to San Francisco State and try to get some women qualified in the 5K or 10K for first rounds of regionals,” Haynes said. “The goal the rest of the season is also to just try to get women qualified for NCAA first round.”

Tucker Johnson contributed reporting.

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