Northwestern finished the first of its postseason meets in 17th place at the Big Ten Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday. The meet was hosted at the University of Nebraska’s Outdoor Track & Field Complex.
The Wildcats opened their weekend slate of events Friday with redshirt junior Skye Ellis running in the 1,500-meter preliminaries with a time of 4:24.06. Despite being nearly 10 seconds slower than the Australian’s program record of 4:14.55, the run was enough to qualify her for the second round of the event.
Friday evening’s action ended with the women’s 10,000-meter finals, which featured junior Jackie Holman, senior Mia Mraz and redshirt sophomore Ava Criniti. After facing an inclement weather delay before the start of the race, Holman and Mraz finished in 13th and 16th, respectively, while Criniti was one of six runners in the event who did not finish.
NU began its Saturday with a major milestone for freshman Olivia Capala, who posted her personal best and program record in the 800-meter preliminaries with a time of 2:08.23. The achievement marks Capala’s fourth time breaking the program record in the event this season.
Three ’Cats competed in Saturday’s 3,000-meter steeplechase finals with redshirt freshman Cary Drake and senior Mallory Grubb finishing in fifth and 20th place, respectively, while graduate student Anna Hightower did not finish the race. Drake was in 12th place after the fifth lap but mustered a pronounced final push in the final three laps to climb seven spots and secure NU’s first points and highest finish of the weekend.
The meet’s Sunday finale began with Ellis competing in the 1,500-meter finals. Ellis finished with a time of 4:23.08, beating her own time in the first round of the event by nearly one second. The performance secured seventh place in the event for Ellis.
The final event Northwestern competed in was the 5,000-meter finals. Criniti, Hightower, Holman and senior Maddy Whitman ran in the event and finished in 13th, 14th, 22nd and 30th place, respectively. Drake, who won Big Ten Conference Freshman of the Week after her second program record-breaking 3,000-meter steeplechase two weeks ago, was listed for the race but did not start.
This weekend marked NU’s first taste of postseason action since the program began receiving full school funding after a 38-year hiatus. The Wildcats currently only have a women’s roster and were the only team at the Big Ten Championships to not field a men’s team.
The team closed out the weekend in last place out of the 17 participating programs, tallying six points from six events across three days. The Oregon Ducks dominated both the men’s and women’s leaderboards, reaching 121 and 110 points, respectively, and finished in first place in both.
The Wildcats now look ahead as their postseason continues at the NCAA West Preliminary from May 27 to 30 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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