The Northern Michigan University women’s cross country was happy to pose for this team photo after winning the Royals Challenge held in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday. (Photo courtesy NMU)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The run was worth the wait — or at least the travel involved in it.

The women’s cross country team at Northern Michigan University went all the way to North Carolina, but made the trip worth it by winning the team title at the 18-school Royals Challenge hosted by Queens University on Friday.

The nationally ranked Wildcats — they entered the meet at No. 16 in NCAA Division II — held off a charge by No. 19 Catawba, a “local” school compared to NMU, located only about 40 or 50 miles from Charlotte.

Led by top-five finishes from both senior Madi Szymanski and freshman Ashley Choponis, Northern scored 39 points as Catawba, also with a pair of top-five finishers, totaled 47. Host Queens was a distant third with 131, while Lenoir-Rhyne had 133, Charlotte 154 and Furman 162.

In this five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race, a first for the Wildcats this season as their meets traditionally feature 6K (3.7-mile) runs, Szymanski broke a more-than-quarter-century-old Northern record by finishing third in 17 minutes, 18.7 seconds. The old 5K mark was 17:25.0 by Caitlin Compton in 1999.

Since returning from a season-ending injury early in the 2024 campaign, Szymanski has been a top-10 finisher in all four of Northern’s meets, according to an account from NMU Sports Information.

Just to boot, this was also her best-ever 5K time by more than a minute.

Then Choponis gave the Wildcats a chance to win this meet by finishing right after Szymanski in fourth place in 17:26.26. Among her achievements, she also had the fastest time among underclassmen as 164 runners in all finished.

Northern junior Emma Sweeney also cracked the top 10 in ninth place in 17:40.23, a two-minute improvement on her previous best 5K in 2023.

With Catabwa also getting three runners in the top 10 and all five scorers in the top 20, it was incumbent on the other NMU runners to match that.

And they did. Senior Beverly Harper was 13th in 17:50.24, while senior Sophia Potter was 15th in 17:52.53.

While NMU’s finishers counted 2, 3, 8, 12 and 14 points, Catawba was quite similar at 1, 4, 7, 16 and 19.

Interestingly, winning the race was an unattached runner, Sierra Bower, who won by more than 35 seconds in 16:39.91. Runner-up was Madison Clay of Catawba in 17:15.79, while that school’s Hannah Caudill was fifth in 17:28.22. Bower attends Furman but apparently has already used her four years of eligibility there.

Northern had some more of its runners also place quite well, which could’ve provided insurance if one of the top runners had faltered.

Junior Lamar Gordon was 22nd in 18:03.9, junior Dani Van Lente 24th in 18:07.6 and sophomore Madalyn Agren 27th in 18:17.8.

Also for NMU, Ishpeming High School graduate and Northern sophomore Lola Korpi was 46th in 18:35.47, sophomore Ella DeBruyn 51st in 18:42.4, Marquette Senior High School grad at NMU freshman Maija Maki-Warne 52nd in 18:42.67, sophomore Celia Wallace 57th in 18:48.6 and sophomore Anya VanSweden 82nd in 19:15.0.

The Wildcats’ final regular-season meet is the Husky Invitational at 4:15 p.m. Friday in Houghton. After that is the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship in Grand Rapids on Oct. 25 and NCAA Division II Midwest Region and the national championship meets in November.

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.