MARQUETTE, Mich. – The Northern Michigan cross country team is set to compete at the GLIAC Championships on Friday, November 6, in Westville, Indiana.

Hosted by Purdue Northwest, the championships will take place at the Purdue Northwest Westville Campus Cross Country Course, with racing beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

After five regular-season races, the Green and Gold have put together a strong campaign, highlighted by a team victory at the Warrior Challenge, where NMU finished first out of 10 teams. The Wildcats also claimed a runner-up finish among 20 teams at the Lucian Rosa Invitational. Those performances have helped Northern earn a No. 5 ranking in the Midwest Region and sit just outside the top 30 nationally.

Northern enters this year's championship looking to build on a historic 2025 campaign, when the Wildcats finished second at the GLIAC Championships, their best conference finish since 2017. The team went on to place fourth at the NCAA Midwest Regional and qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2017, finishing 24th nationally. Northern also climbed as high as No. 12 in the national rankings, establishing itself among the top programs in Division II.

Several members of last year's postseason squad return, including All-GLIAC performers Ashley Choponis and Lamar Gordon, who will look to carry that championship experience into this year's postseason.

Leading the way for the Wildcats this season has been junior Ella DeBruyn, who has claimed two individual victories and earned GLIAC Cross Country Athlete of the Week honors twice. Her first collegiate individual title came at the Lucian Rosa Invitational, where she topped a field of 210 runners with a time of 22:12.84, finishing 2.7 seconds ahead of the runner-up. After sitting in second at the halfway point, DeBruyn surged into the lead in the closing stages, passing the front-runner with 400 meters remaining.

She followed that performance with another victory at the Wayne State Warrior Challenge in Detroit, clocking a 21:29.9 to edge UIndy's Elise Peckinpaugh by more than two seconds. The win marked her second consecutive individual title, with her time coming just seconds shy of her career best.

The Roy Griak Invitational provided another strong showing for the Wildcats, as Northern competed against a field of nearly 250 runners from all collegiate divisions. DeBruyn once again led the way, setting a personal best of 21:21.3 to finish 49th overall and fifth among Division II competitors.

Also at the Roy Griak, Choponis and Gordon finished nearly side by side, placing 65th and 66th, respectively. Choponis crossed in 21:35.0, shaving three seconds off her previous career best, while Gordon recorded a personal-best 21:35.4. The pair finished ninth and 10th among Division II runners. Junior Lola Korpi also turned in the best performance of her career, finishing in 21:56.5. Freshman Macy Guikema and junior Anya VanSweden both recorded personal bests with times of 22:10.3 and 22:11.2, respectively.