No. 26 Northwestern stunned its high-caliber opposition at the Tom Cooney Women’s 6K Championship at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational Friday, earning 2nd overall over top ranked teams including No. 7 Providence and No. 11 Washington. NU scored 59 points, finishing only behind No. 2 NC State with 34.
Graduate student Ava Earl, graduate student Holly Smith and redshirt-sophomore Ava Criniti all finished in the top 10. Earl was the first Wildcat to finish the race with a time of 19:51.02, putting her 4th overall in the race.
Smith and Criniti finished in 19:55.25 and 19:58.59, respectively. Both posted personal records in the 6K, with Criniti even besting her 5K PR in the 5K split during the race.
The race took place just under eight miles south of campus at Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course, bringing school spirit to cheer the racers on. Former teammates and other student athletes joined them on the spirit bus and cheered them on throughout the race, Smith said.
Smith said staying focused on keeping pace the entire race helped the team finish quickly. She outran her previous 6K PR by more than 25 seconds.
“We know that we’re capable and we were meant to the place there today, so it was good to see,” Smith said.
Criniti said that managing the races in a straightforward manner — as helped by the race’s organization into three 2K loops — has helped with the team’s recent success.
“Deep down we all know we’re very capable and fit this season, so there isn’t too much to overthink,” Criniti said. “Our big thing is simplifying everything that we can, so we just kept it simple today and used our fitness to go out there.”
Seventh-year coach Jill Miller said the team had just come off of a heavy block of training including strength, aerobic and threshold development training, making the runner-up finish all the more inspiring.
Miller said that emphasizing teamwork has been a core component of this year’s strategy and early success.
“They really believe in each other, and they believe in themselves,” she said. “When you look at our lineup, every single person down to our ninth runner contributed to that team score.”
The strong finish carries on NU’s hot start to the season, after it placed first at the Big Ten Preview last month. Miller said the strong performances early on are exciting, but that the team would stay focused on the postseason.
Still, Miller said the race was a good opportunity for the team to showcase its ability to the world.
“We’ve been talking a lot about wearing a little chip on our shoulders and the weight of the chip can’t be too heavy, that it weighs you down, but there’s a lot of external folks that don’t think we’re that good,” Miller said. “And it’s like, well, let’s be excited about going to prove them wrong.”
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