In Northwestern’s penultimate regular season outdoor meet, the team set new personal and school records.
The Wildcats split their team in half, competing at the Bryan Clay Invitation in Azusa, California, and the Gibson Invitational in Terre Haute, Indiana, almost 2,000 miles apart from each other.
Distance has never been a problem for NU, though, as graduate student Anna Hightower raced against some of the best 5,000-meter runners in the country and beat her own record by more than half a minute at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Hightower’s time of 15:46.72 is the second-best for the 5,000-meter in ’Cats’ history.
Apart from Hightower, three other 5,000-meter NU runners etched their names into the history books Friday. Junior Jackie Holman, redshirt sophomore Ava Criniti and senior Maddy Whitman ran times that moved them into fifth, sixth and ninth, respectively, for the ’Cats all-time.
In the 800-meter, freshman Olivia Capala surpassed her own personal and school record with a time of 2:09.99. Capala placed fourth in her group.
Across the country at the Gibson Invitational, NU did just as well in the 5,000-meter with senior Mia Mraz, graduate student Ava Earl and freshman Marley McCullough placing first, second and fourth, respectively.
In the 3,000-meter steeplechase, redshirt freshman Cary Drake and senior Mallory Grubb put on a clinic, finishing first and second, respectively. The third-place finisher trailed Grubb by more than 18 seconds. The result at Gibson was the second straight meet that the duo outperformed the rest of the competition. In her last time out, Drake competed in the steeplechase for her first time and set the school record.
After some high-profile finishes, the ’Cats will finish their outdoor season on May 1 in Madison, Wisconsin, at the Badger Challenge.
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