First-Years Pace ‘Cats At John McNichols Invitational

Northwestern cross country received impressive contributions from members of its first-year class this morning as it competed at the John McNichols Invitational in Terre Haute, Ind.

The Wildcats placed fifth in the women’s 6k open race, posting a team total of 103 points at Indiana State University’s LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course, which will also serve as the host site for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November.  Stanford (18 points) finished atop the team leaderboard in the open race, with West Virginia (74 points) coming in second.

Ella Goodsell paced the attack for Northwestern on a warm, late-summer morning in Indiana’s Wabash Valley.  The Romeo, Mich. native came flying off the starting line, running an opening 2k split of 7:02.2 en route to placing 17^th overall at 22:19.0.

The pairing of Isabel Mahoney and Natalia Guaresimo was separated by only five seconds. Mahoney checked in 25^th with a time of 22:28.4, while Guaresimo came through in 22:33.5 to finish 28^th.

Lauren Virmani battled her way to a 35^th-place showing, surging through in 22:53.7.  Isabelle Yttre rounded out the Wildcats’ top five, posting a time of 23:41.9 to finish 55^th.

Northwestern returns to action close to home on Friday, September 25, as it makes the short trip south to Montrose Harbor on Chicago’s North Side for the Loyola Lakefront Invitational.