The Northern Michigan University women’s track and field team is nothing but smiles after the Wildcats finished a best-ever second place at the GLIAC Championships outdoor meet held at Grand Valley State in Allendale from Wednesday through Friday. The six-person NMU coaching staff, led by head coach Jenny Ryan, was named GLIAC Coaching Staff of the Year. (Photo courtesy NMU)

ALLENDALE — History was made by the Northern Michigan University women’s track and field team as the Wildcats earned their best-ever finish at any GLIAC Championships track meet, indoors or outdoors.

At this, the outdoor championships held from Wednesday through Friday at Grand Valley State, NMU finished runner-up, scoring 125.5 points by accumulating points in 16 of 21 events.

The host Lakers were runaway winners with 287, while Wayne State was a relatively close third with 108.

The rest of the 10-team field included Saginaw Valley State in fourth with 85, followed by Wisconsin-Parkside with 74.5, Davenport 56.5, Ferris State 34, Purdue Northwest 23, Michigan Tech 17 and Lake Superior State 7.5.

This was NMU’s 22nd year competing in GLIAC track.

The Wildcats set significant marks in three ways at this meet — they won twice among nine podium finishes, they set four school records and they reached four provisional qualifying marks for the upcoming NCAA Division II national meet scheduled for Pueblo, Colorado, from May 22-24.

And a number of NMU athletes even achieved several personal records in Allendale.

In addition, the Wildcats’ six-person staff was named the 2025 GLIAC Coaching Staff of the Year. The crew is led by head coach Jenny Ryan and also includes Michael Dellemann, Luke Pease, Terri Todd, Sarah Pease and Leonard Pizziola.

With Teiolla Harvey in the javelin and Ellyse Wolfrath in the 100-meter hurdles winning their events, school records were set by Harvey in the javelin, Crystal Walker in the 100 hurdles and long jump, and Ahna Larson in the 400 hurdles.

And Walker in the long jump, Wolfrath, Larson and Skylar Grubb in the 10,000 each hit NCAA provisional scores.

Harvey actually led an NMU double-podium finish in the javelin, winning with a school-record throw of 40.86 meters (134 feet, 5/8 of an inch), while teammate Wilme Els was runner-up with a toss of 40.20 meters (131-10 5/8). Not only was this Northern’s first-ever victory in this event at the GLIAC Championships, but the pair are the only Wildcats to ever achieve 40 meters in the javelin.

Wolfrath won the 100 hurdles in 13.76 seconds, the exact time she ran in the preliminaries for what is also her personal record. She had earned GLIAC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Week after she had set the NMU record of 13.82 seconds in the same event at the Ashton May Invitational in Wisconsin in early April.

But Wolfrath only finished second in the GLIAC prelims to teammate Walker, who clocked 13.68 seconds to re-establish the NMU record. Walker followed it up with 13.96 in the finals for fourth place.

Walker got her other school record along with her NCAA provisional mark in the long jump, where she finished runner-up with a leap of 5.93 meters (19-5 1/2). She edged out her previous best of 5.92 meters (19-5 1/8).

Teammate Sofi Drop was fifth in the long jump with a personal-record leap of 5.72 meters (18-9 1/4).

Larson set a school record, personal record and improved her NCAA provisional mark with 1:01.04 in the 400 hurdles, finishing fourth.

Though she didn’t get a win, Grubb was the only Northern athlete to reach the podium twice at this meet. She was third in the 10,000, the longest collegiate race, with a personal-record 35:52.42, then added another third in the 5,000 with another PR of 17:09.36.

Grubb is the second Wildcat to pull off this podium double, joining NMU Sports Hall of Fame inductee Kameron Burmeister.

Meanwhile, teammate Sophia Potter finished fifth in the 10,000 in her own PR of 37:28.71.

But Northern’s top-10 finishes don’t even come close to stopping there.

Kati Smith was runner-up for a silver medal in the pole vault after she cleared 3.64 meters (11-11 1/4). She became just the second Wildcat to finish this highly in the outdoor pole vault at the conference finals.

Also in the pole vault, Rebecca Lane cleared a personal-record 3.49 meters (11-5 3/8) for fourth and Alayna Vandegriff made it over at 3.34 meters (10-11 1/2) for fifth.

In the seven-event heptathlon that takes two days to complete, NMU’s Natasha Nowakowski finished third with 3,921 points to become just the fourth Wildcat to finish on the podium in this event. Her highlights were a win in the shot put with a heave of 10.34 meters (33-11 1/8), second in the 800 and third in the javelin.

Teammate Eva Zonca was fifth with 3,605, including third in the 100 hurdles in 15.39 seconds, while Elizabeth Simpson was 10th with 3,157, her best finish a fourth in the high jump after clearing 1.45 meters (4-9 1/8).

Also earning a third-place bronze medal was Diop in the triple jump by reaching 11.36 meters (37-3 1/4), while Vandegriff was fourth in that event with 10.88 meters (35-8 3/8).

Placing fourth was Northern’s 4-by-400 relay of Larson, Lana Mac, Escanaba native Ciara Ostrenga and Beverly Harper in 3:55.69, while the 4-by-100 relay with Wolfrath, Ostrenga, Larson and Walker was fifth in 47.58 seconds.

Harvey added a sixth in the shot put with a heave of 12.58 meters (41-3 1/4), while Alizabeth Little was also sixth in the discus with a personal-record 39.69 meters (130-2 5/8).

Yet another sixth place was turned in by Lamar Gordon in the 1,500 in 4:40.59, while Harper was seventh in the 800 in 2:16.06 and Dani Van Lente eighth in the 3,000 steeplechase with a personal-best 11:19.02.

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