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Dani Van Lente, Gianna Hoving lead Northern Michigan University runners at southern Wisconsin meet

This quintet of top Northern Michigan University finishers at the Lucian Rosa Invitational cross country meet on Saturday in Kenosha, Wis., hold their souvenir T-shirts. (Photo courtesy NMU)

KENOSHA, Wis. — Five runners finished in the top 25 for the Northern Michigan University women’s cross country team at the Lucian Rosa Invitational hosted by Wisconsin-Parkside in southeastern Wisconsin on Saturday.

Sophomore Dani Van Lente was the first Wildcat to finish in a career-best 22 minutes, 45.3 seconds for ninth place on the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) course. Junior Gianna Hoving was immediately after her in 10th in 22:57.3.

Sophomore teammates Lamar Gordon and Emma Sweeney also finished back to back, Gordon 17th in 23:22.2 and Sweeney 18th in 23:22.8.

Northern’s fifth top-25 finisher was freshman Celia Wallace in 21st in 23:27.7.

Six more Wildcats ran a sub-24-minute race to rank in the top 40 — Beverly Harper, 28th in 23:41.9; Skylar Grubb, 30th in 23:47.1; Elliott Smith, 31st in 23:48.0; Sophia Potter, 34th in 23:51.9; Brooke Lemos, 36th in 23:55.5; and Anya VanSweden, 37th in 23:56.2.

NMU scored 72 points to finish in fourth place among 10 schools that posted team scores.

Winona State (Minnesota) won with 35 points, including the top two finishers — junior Sophia Taarud winning in 21:35.2 and senior McKenna Taylor runner-up in 21:57.4. Both NMU’s Van Lente and Hoving finished within a minute of Taylor.

Former GLIAC member Hillsdale was a distant second with 62, just 10 points ahead of Northern, as the host Rangers actually tied the Wildcats with 72 but won a tiebreaker for third place.

Lake Superior State was seventh with 207, while also from the GLIAC, Purdue Northwest was eighth with 223 and new league member Roosevelt ninth with 288.

The Wildcats have just two regular-season meets left before the GLIAC Championships scheduled for the final week of this month at Ferris State in Big Rapids. NMU goes to the Lewis Crossover in Romeoville, Illinois, on Oct. 12 and the Bay College Invitational in Escanaba on Oct. 18.

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

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