NORMAL and DECATUR, Ill. – The Northern Michigan Track & Field team competed at the Big Blue Outdoor Opener and Joyce-Morton Kief Invites in Illinois this weekend to begin the outdoor season. In a strong combined effort, the Wildcats delivered four first-place finishes and 19 top-5 finishes overall.
At the Joyce Morton-Kief Invite, the 'Cats finished fourth out of 11 teams with a total team score of 93. The hosts, Illinois State, won the meet with 128 points, well ahead of second-place Northern Illinois, which had 106. The Wildcats did not record a team score at the Big Blue Outdoor Opener.
NMU's victories came from Dani VanLente (3000m steeplechase),
Madi Szymanski (5000), and
Danielle Lund (discus and hammer throw).
Big Blue Outdoor Opener
In both the discus and hammer throw,
Danielle Lund placed first with throws of 42.03m and 52.41m, respectively.
Caterina Thelen finished in third in the discus with a distance of 38.99m and ninth in the hammer.
Lund earned a second-place finish in the shot put, throwing a mark of 12.53m.
Alizabeth Little followed in third, covering a distance of 11.96m.
In the javelin throw,
Teiolla Harvey secured a second-place finish with a distance of 38.13m. She also finished sixth in the hammer with a mark of 42.06m.
Additionally, Little finished in tenth place in both the hammer and discus throws.
Joyce Morton-Kief Invite
On The Track
In the 3000m steeple, NMU swept 1-4 as they were paced by Dani VanLente with a time of 11:33.57. Rounding out the podium were
Celia Wallace (11:41.21) in second and Anya VanSweeden (11:55.11) in third.
Paige Anderson was fourth with a 12:14.58 finish.
Madi Szymanski led the 5000m with a time of 17:20.65 as the Wildcats swept the podium and grabbed four of the top five spots.
Sophia Potter was in second (17:32.68),
Ashley Choponis placed third (18:11.14), and
Madalyn Agren (18:56.87) was fifth.
In the 1500m,
Lamar Gordon ran a personal-best time of 4:36.78, which placed her third. Also earning a personal-best time was
Ella DeBruyn, who finished with a time of 4:43.24 in eighth.
In the 800m,
Beverly Harper led the way for the Wildcats, finishing fifth with a time of 2:17.54. Also in the top-10 for the Green and Gold were
Lola Korpi in seventh (2:20.56) and
Lana Mac in eighth (2:20.78).
Maya Woods finished in fourth place in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:06.91
In the 100m hurdles, Northern had three top-10 finishes. Lily Phillips led the way in sixth (15.21) with
Eva Zonca right behind her (15.24) in seventh.
Natasha Nowakowski (15.99) rounded out the top-10.
Tashay Faulkner finished in eighth place in the 100m with a time of 12.42.
In The Field
In the hammer throw, Harvey placed third with a distance of 49.45m. Right behind her was Lund in fourth with a distance of 48.96m.
In the javelin throw,
Natasha Nowakowski finished in ninth with a distance of 31.62m.
NMU had two round out the top-10 in the pole vault as Kati Smith finished in ninth with a clearance of 3.43m, and
Alyssa Tumminaro also hit that mark, but finished in tenth via a tiebreaker.
In the triple jump,
Alayna Vandegriff finished in tenth with a distance of 11.08m.
