The Wildcats had five top-three finishes that got those athletes onto the podium over the three-day meet, led by freshman Crystal Walker winning the 100-meter hurdles and taking second in the long jump.

Grand Valley State won both women’s and men’s meets, scoring 249 1/2 in the women’s and 302 in the men’s for a nearly 200-point victory among the men as Michigan Tech was seventh with 25.

In the women’s meet, Wayne State finished second with 139 1/2, Saginaw Valley State was third with 128 and Davenport fourth with 114.

Following NMU, Wisconsin-Parkside was sixth with 37, while MTU had 25, Northwood 21 1/2, Lake Superior State 17 and Ferris State 16 1/2.

Crystal Walker

Walker won the 100 hurdles in 14.44 seconds in the finals, two-hundredths of a second ahead of GVSU’s Corrina Courser. In the preliminaries, they ran a dead heat, each in 13.91, that pared the field to the final nine.

In the long jump, Walker missed the top spot by just two inches after she leaped 5.47 meters (17-feet-11.5) as winner Mikayla Williams of Wayne State finished with a leap of 5.52 meters (18-1.5).

Also making the podium for Northern was Marquette Senior High School graduate Izabelle Peterson, who was second in the 100 dash in 12.08 seconds. The NMU senior finished 0.19 of a second behind winner Makayla Sumrall of Wayne State in the finals. Those two finished in the same order during the prelims with Peterson clocking 12.09.

Another Northern senior, Calli Rechsteiner, was third in the pole vault after clearing 3.69 meters (12-1.25), and lost a tiebreaker for second place based on one more miss to SVSU’s Ciera Weber. GVSU’s Carly Livingston won the event after clearing 3.94 meters (12-11).

The Wildcats’ other top-three finish was by senior Nina Augsten, who was third in the heptathlon with 4,285 points. Davenport swept the top two spots, with Emma Schafer winning with 5,107 and Annabelle Schafer second with 4,563.

Izabelle Peterson

Augsten had several third-place finishes in the heptathlon’s seven individual events — 100 hurdles, shot put and javelin — and fourth in three more.

Peterson just missed the podium when she finished fourth in the 200 in 24.59, just one-hundredth of a second behind third-place Angelina Delbosque of SVSU. Peterson was third in the prelims in 25.06. WSU’s Sumrall won the finals in 24.34.

Wildcats redshirt freshman Leah Root also picked up a fourth-place finish in the pole vault by clearing 3.54 meters (11-7.25).

Northern was fifth in two events, too, with redshirt freshman Sydney Romps in the 400 hurdles in 1:04.94 and the NMU quartet of Peterson, freshman Akirah Venerable, freshman Ellyse Wolfrath and Walker in the 4-by-100 relay in 50.37.

Finishing seventh was the Wildcats’ 4-by-400 relay in 4:09.96 with freshman Ahna Larson, freshman Emme Burrough, sophomore Morgan Lyon and Romps.

Calli Rechsteiner

And Northern had a trio of eighth-place finishes. Wolfrath did that in the 100 hurdles in 15.21, Larson in the 400 hurdles in 1:07.25 and sophomore Mari McClure in the pole vault by clearing 3.24 meters (10-7.5). McClure lost a tiebreaker for seventh, too.

In the 5,000, NMU senior Anna Kelley, sophomore Madison Malon and senior Elise Longley finished 12th, 13th and 14th, respectively, with Malon setting a personal season best and winning her heat and Longley finishing right behind her in that heat.

The Wildcats have one more meet before the NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships from May 26-28 back at GVSU. That will be the aptly-named Last Chance Meet at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, held today and Friday, which is a final opportunity to set times, distances, heights or points to qualify for the nationals.

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

Nina Augsten