Senior Ava Earl and junior Mia Mraz stormed to first-place finishes as Northwestern cross country secured a pair of team trophies at the Bradley Pink Classic Friday.
Earl ran a blistering 20:14.4 Friday, a three-second personal best, as seven of eight Wildcat runners finished within the top 20 of the women’s red race.
Junior Maddy Whitman took home a bronze medal. She ran a personal-best 20:22.0, 44 seconds clear of her previous record.
Sophomore Ava Criniti, building on an impressive 2024 campaign, notched a time of 20:37.2 and finished 11th.
Building upon the theme of personal bests, graduate student Chloe Wellings and junior Skye Ellis each set career highs, finishing 13th and 16th respectively to round out the scoring for NU.
The ’Cats scored just 44 points in the women’s red race. The team finishing in second, Loyola Chicago, earned 123 points.
Meanwhile, Mraz led the pack in the women’s white race, running a personal best 21:35.9 and out-pacing her competitor in second place by nearly 12 seconds.
Junior Serena Frolli, senior Whitney Currie and senior Audrey Bannister each finished within the top 15 of the women’s white race. Frolli placed sixth overall, running a time of 22:04.3, while Currie and Bannister finished 14th and 15th, respectively. Junior Mallory Grubb also scored for NU, finishing 25th.
The ’Cats scored 36 points in the women’s white race, three points clear of second-place Kentucky, to finish the week with two team wins.
Up next for NU: the Big Ten Championships in Champaign on Nov. 1 as the squad prepares to begin its postseason push. Last year, the ’Cats finished sixth as a team in the meet — its second-highest finish in program history — while now-graduate student Katherine Hessler finished fifth individually.
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Related Stories:
— Cross Country: Alaska native Ava Earl stars as squad climbs to new heights
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