Northwestern University Athletics
Wildcats Sprint into 2008 Schedule with Mix of Experience, Youth
8/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country & Track
Aug. 5, 2008
EVANSTON, Ill. -- The 2008 schedule for the Northwestern women's cross country team has been released and features three meets in close proximity to the greater Chicago area. The meets will give the Wildcats plenty of opportunities to showcase a roster that combines 11 returning runners with nine talented first-years.
"The freshmen we brought in are well aware of their role on this team and of the possibilities of some of them being immediate factors to our program," said fourth-year head coach April Likhite. "Our veterans will play a crucial role in leading these newcomers and teaching them what Northwestern cross country is all about."
Northwestern will start the season by competing in the DePaul Home Opener at Channel Runne Park in nearby Lincolnwood, Ill. on Friday, Aug. 29. The following two weeks sees the purple-and-white travel to Purdue University for the Great American Legends meet as well as the Mississippi State Invitational in Starkville.
After that, Northwestern returns to Chicago for the Loyola Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 27. On Oct. 11, the Wildcats travel to nearby Kenosha, Wis. for the Parkside Invitational.
Only the Adidas Invitational in South Bend, Ind. (Oct. 3) and the Bradley Classic in Peoria, Ill. (Oct. 17) are holdovers from the 2007 schedule. A year ago, Northwestern had one of its best team outings of the year at the Bradley Classic, posting a third-place finish out of 17 teams in the 6K event.
The Big Ten Championships will be held Nov. 2 in Ann Arbor, Mich., while the NCAA Regional meet will take place in Stillwater, Okla. on the campus of Oklahoma State. This year's NCAA Championships will be run in Terre Haute, Ind on Nov. 24.
The Wildcats, led by seniors Carly Brown (Kalispell, Mont./Flathead), Allison King (Potomac, Md./Winston Churchill) and Marcellee Fullwood (Houston, Texas/Cypress Falls), will try to build on last year's 15th-place finish at the NCAA Regionals. They will be joined by freshmen such as Rachel Kaminski (Green Bay, Wis./Bay Port), who claimed the Wisconsin state title in the 1,600m track race in June.
