Serving as the opener for the Wildcats’ outdoor season, team scores were not kept as a dozen NMU athletes accounted for the victories.

Wildcats junior Ellise Longley opened the meet with a victory of more than 20 seconds in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 11 minutes, 42.70 seconds.

Freshman teammate Madison Malon took the 5,000 run by less than four seconds, clocking 19:00.11, just beating out fellow Northern freshman Meghan Langworthy’s 19:03.96. Langworthy came in about 1 3/4 seconds ahead of third place.

NMU’s other two individual victories came in field events.

Madison Malon

Sophomore Calli Rechsteiner won the pole vault by clearing 3.35 meters (10 feet, 11.9 inches), winning a tiebreaker with Alex Eby of Davenport.

And freshman Selena Johnson won the triple jump with a leap of 11.56 meters (37-11.1), more than a half-meter ahead of the rest of the field.

In relays, the Wildcats’ 4-by-100 relay won in 48.61 seconds, barely a quarter-second head of the runner-up. NMU’s team included freshman Sydney Romps, sophomore Maria de Mingo Domenech, junior Ninti Little and senior Lauren Alarie.

And Northern’s 4-by-400 relay won in 4:16.03, almost two seconds ahead of other teams. The winners were sophomore Morgan Lyon, junior Hannah Jones, sophomore Delaney Pickett and junior Sydney Ormsbee.

Some other meet highlights included senior Nina Augsten placing third in the 100 hurdles in 15.60, missing the top spot by less than three-quarters of a second and runner-up by 0.03 of a second.

Calli Rechsteiner

In the 100, Alarie was second in 12.53 and de Mingo Domenech third in 12.57.

In the pole vault, freshman Mari McClure was third after clearing 3.20 meters (10-6), while Little was second in the long jump with a leap of 5.38 meters (17-7.8).

In the javelin, Augusten was second in 31.90 meters (104-7.9) and sophomore Madison Campbell third in 28.68 meters (94-1.1).

Up next for the Wildcats is the Hillsdale Invitational at the former GLIAC member school in the southern Lower Peninsula on Saturday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.