Cross Country

Northwestern’s freshmen have had no trouble adjusting to the college level.

Aubrey Roberts and Sarah Nicholson, a pair of first-year runners, led the Wildcats to a 21st place finish at the Griak Invitational on Saturday. NU competed against a strong field of 36 teams, including some of the best in the country, in the Minnesota-based meet at the site of this year’s Big Ten Championships.

Individually, Roberts took 17th, clocking in at 22:17 on the 6K course, while Nicholson placed 26th with a time of 22:24. In their second meet as Cats, they held their own and finished near the front of the field of more than 300 runners.

Prior to the meet, coach ‘A Havahla Haynes set a goal of finishing in the top 15 after the team finished 20th in last season’s edition of the Griak Invitational. Although her team didn’t top its performance from last season, Roberts and Nicholson both ran about a minute faster than NU’s top runners at the meet in 2015.

The two freshmen finished with a strong second half of the race to secure their places. At the halfway point of the race Nicholson and Roberts were 56th and 57th, respectively, but gained ground over the rest of the field in the second 3K.

The team’s older runners finished well behind the newcomers. Juniors Haley Albers and Sara Coffey finished in 24:06 and 24:31, respectively, while sophomore Hannah Anderson rounded out the Cats’ top five with a time of 24:50.

In a preview meet for the Big Tens, NU finished behind fellow Big Ten schools Michigan State, Penn State, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio State. The Cats finished ahead of conference foes Illinois and Iowa on the day — a pair that bested NU at the Big Tens last year.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @KeshiaJ09