Northwestern wrapped up its regular season with two individual wins in a low-key affair at UChicago’s Margaret Bradley Invitational on Saturday.
With one eye on the Big Ten Indoor Championships set to run from Thursday to Saturday, coach Jill Miller said some of the program’s premier athletes rested while other regulars finalized their preparation for the postseason and younger runners gained useful experience.
The weekend capped a glittering first regular season back in Division I indoor track for the Wildcats. Over nine meets, the team broke two program records and achieved high-ranking times in school history for several other races.
“Meet after meet, we really saw their poise change in their racing, so a lot of confidence, a lot of risk-taking and we’re watching just a lot of fitness grow,” Miller said. “I’m really impressed by the week-to-week build that we’ve had across the entire group.”
Redshirt sophomore Kailey Zagst won the mile with a personal-best time of 5:00.16. Freshman Olivia Capala also took home the 400-meter event title with a 57.14.
NU does not usually enter races shorter than 800 meters — Capala and redshirt sophomore Maddy Powers are the only ’Cats to do so this season — and Miller said the race was meant to prepare Capala for her leg of the distance medley relay.
Capala didn’t expect to be asked to compete at the Big Ten Championships as a freshman, but she said the past few workouts have helped her build confidence. Now, she is one of the top middle-distance runners in a program that has long depended on cross country talent.
“It’s really exciting, just because our distance program is insane,” Capala said. “With some new recruits next year and just the program being more developed … we can have a really strong mid-distance program as well.”
At the conference championships, NU will contest the 800-meter, 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter races in addition to the DMR, which includes 1,200-meter, 400-meter, 800-meter and 1,600-meter legs, Miller added.
NU’s preparation for the indoor track postseason has included a greater focus on strength training and a study of the “lost art” of tactics, she said. Miller emphasized the team’s maturity compared to previous groups, recalling a recent conversation she had with graduate student Anna Hightower about the upcoming 3,000-meter race.
The event will be split into three sections, and the two discussed how Hightower should mentally approach her group if it runs at a slower pace than the second section, which Miller expects to go especially quickly.
Hightower told her coach she was confident that her teammates competing in the second section would score points if it went fast; if the second section was slower, Hightower said she would “go score the points.”
“It’s just a really professional mindset,” Miller said. “It’s simple, but I think it’s really unique, and it’s not lost on me how awesome that is to feel every single week.”
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