With head coach Jenny Ryan at right and top finisher Madi Szymanski fourth from right, the Northern Michigan University women’s cross country team stands together at the NCAA Division II Championships held in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of NMU)

KENOSHA, Wis. — The women’s cross country team at Northern Michigan University completed a landmark season with its first appearance in eight years at the NCAA Division II National Championships on Saturday in southeastern Wisconsin.

In a field of the 34 best D-II teams in the country and more than 260 competitors, the Wildcats finished 24th with 586 points as NMU had a top-100 finisher and all seven of its runners in the top 200.

The meet hosted by GLIAC member Wisconsin-Parkside was the third time Northern, ranked No. 12 in the nation entering Saturday, had run on this course this fall, following the NCAA Midwest Region meet held there two weeks earlier and the Lucian Rosa Invitational played there in late September.

Senior Madi Szymanski finished in 70th place on the six-kilometer (3.73-mile) course in 21 minutes, 29.9 seconds. She was within 30 seconds of 34th place and just under a minute out of eighth place.

The All-Midwest Region honoree had kilometer splits of 3:31.3 for the first K, 3:34.2 for the second K, 3:32.7 for the third, 3:30.8 for the fourth, and at the last measured one, 3:07.7 for another 0.8K measured at the 4.8K mark.

She was in 41st place after 1K, slipping back a bit at each interval to 63rd, 66th, 70th and 77th at the 4.8K mark before bouncing back to finish 70th.

Next for the Wildcats was junior Lamar Gordon in 136th place in 22:12.2. Despite finishing 66 spots behind Szymanski, she was just 42.3 seconds after her teammate. She had fallen as far back as 186th through 2K before steadily moving back up in the pack to improve her finish 50 spots.

Freshman Ashley Choponis, like Szymanski an All-Midwest Region honoree, was the third NMU runner to finish, taking 145th place in 22:19.2. She started out in Szymanski’s range in 93rd place after 1K before slipping back a bit.

Next for Northern was senior Beverly Harper in 162nd place in 22:26.2. She held relatively steady in 20 positions between 147th and 167th throughout her race.

The final scorer for the Wildcats was senior Emma Sweeney, 168th place in 22:28.8, as she was in the 180th-place range before moving up the second half of her run.

Also competing for NMU was junior Dan Van Lente, 183rd in 22:36.4, and senior Sophia Potter, 187th in 22:44.4.

National No. 1 Grand Valley State of the GLIAC won the title by the narrowest of margins, 65 points to 69 for runner-up Colorado School of Mines. Wingate (North Carolina) was a distant third with 131.

The Lakers’ top finisher was sixth-place Abby VanderKooi, but GVSU made up for it with all five of its scoring runners in the top 20.

CSM had runner-up Grace Strongman but it final scorer was 33rd.

Junior Tristian Spence of Adams State (Colorado), which finished fourth in the team standings, won in 20:11.0, exactly six seconds ahead of Strongman.

With Grand Valley also winning the Midwest Region that NMU competed in and finished fourth at, regional runner-up Cedarville (Ohio) came in seventh at the nationals with 303 points, regional third-place Lewis (Illinois) was 14th with 455, and fifth-place Walsh (Ohio) was 27th with 630.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.