Ten days removed from achieving the program’s highest national USTFCCCA ranking in history, No. 24 Northwestern finished 18th Friday at the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin. 

The Wildcats ran seven athletes — graduate student Chloe Wellings, graduate student Holly Smith, senior Ava Earl, sophomore Ava Criniti, graduate student Katherine Hessler, junior Maddy Whitman and junior Skye Ellis — at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.  

Wellings, who transferred to NU this year from Radford, ran a team-high 21:06.8 in the 6K race, placing 61st overall of 191 runners. Smith — a graduate transfer from Iona — ran a time of 21:11.9, finishing 70th overall, while Earl rounded out the top three ’Cats runners with a time of 21:19.8 and an 83rd place finish.

The ’Cats entered the meet ranked 24th in the national USTFCCCA poll and stood atop the Midwest Region rankings for the first time in program history. Oklahoma State and Iowa State were ranked No. 2 and No. 3, respectively.

Fifteen nationally-ranked teams — including NU — competed in the invitational, including Big Ten foes No. 5 Washington, No. 4 Oregon, No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 29 Penn State. 

Washington took first place, while No. 14 Utah came in second place. No. 15 Georgetown took third in the team rankings. Villanova’s Sadie Sigfstead won the individual race, running a time of 19:55.7. That’s a 5:21-minute mile — an average speed of 11.2 miles per hour.

NU has a meet close to home this week, running in the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational hosted by Loyola Chicago on Friday, Oct. 4.

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