After a successful showing at the Blue Demon Alumni Classic Jan. 20, Northwestern is gearing up for its next challenge in Seattle. The Wildcats, who were named a 2022 All-American Team on Thursday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, look to turn heads on Dempsey Indoor track at the UW Invitational.

Five NU runners will compete in two events during the two-day meet Friday and Saturday.

Sophomores Ava Earl and Anna Hightower earned spots in section four of the 3,000-meter run. Hightower won the 800-meter event in Chicago Jan. 20 and looks to apply her skillset to a far longer event. Earl, who was recognized as an All-Academic Athlete by the USTFCCCA, did not compete in last week’s meet.

Section five of the 3,000-meter run consists of the top-seeded invited athletes. It comes as no surprise that the Cats’ leader, graduate student Rachel McCardell, earned a place among the event’s elite. The Michigan native and USTFCCCA All-Academic Athlete coasted to a mile victory at the Blue Demon Alumni Classic and won the 3,000-meter event in Allendale, Michigan.

While McCardell holds a seed time of 9:26:89, three runners carry seed times within a second of 9:05. The stacked field entails an uphill battle for a top position, and McCardell needs to run her best race to stay competitive.

Utah stars Emily Venters and Simone Plourde vie for the event’s top spot, but Weber State’s Billie Hatch and San Francisco’s Ruby Smee leave the Utes with plenty of work cut out for them.

A pair of NU veterans comprise the team’s two 5-kilometer runners. Graduate student Olivia Verbeke and senior Kalea Bartolotto will compete in the Cats’ furthest distance of the young indoor track season. Verbeke placed seventh in the mile last week, while Bartolotto earned a top-three finish in the 3000-meter run.

The event’s top two seeds hold blistering seed paces that are less than a second apart. Utah State distance star Micaela Rivera has been clocked at 16:19.61, and Boise State’s Delaney Griffin holds a 16:20.67 personal best. Both runners hope to earn an event win, and the rest of the pack must avoid being dropped by the blazing-fast favorites.

NU faces its toughest competition of the track season thus far, but coach Jill Miller’s runners have a chance to prove themselves against some of the nation’s elite. Friday and Saturday may be a far cry from the squad’s early season dominance, but the experience out west should provide a platform to build upon as the season progresses.

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