Northern Michigan University’s Ashley Choponis nears the finish line to take second place in the collegiate part of the Wildcat Open cross country meet held on campus in Marquette on Aug. 22. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The women’s cross country team at Northern Michigan University wraps up its regular season with a relatively short road trip to the Husky Invitational hosted by Michigan Tech in Houghton this afternoon.

With a start time scheduled for 4:15 p.m., the Wildcats are already preparing for the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship set for Saturday, Oct. 25, in Grand Rapids.

After that will follow NCAA Division II Midwest Regional and national championship meets, both in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Saturdays in November.

Results from today’s race will be available online at https://michigantechhuskies.com/, while fans can follow @NMU_Track_Field and @NMU_Wildcats on X for updates leading up to and during the race.

Northern has had nothing but top-five team finishes this season and is now ranked No. 15 in Division II in the weekly national poll conducted by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

But the Wildcats’ crowning moment had to be last Friday, when the Wildcats won the 18-team Royals Challenge held a long way from home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

NMU won a close race for the team title, scoring 39 points to 47 for Catawba, a school located within 50 miles of Charlotte. Northern was just a bit better as both teams had a pair of top-five finishers and all five of their scorers cracking the top 20.

“Last weekend, our runners did what we talked about, and we saw what we could do,” Wildcats head coach Jenny Ryan said in a news release from NMU Sports Information previewing today’s meet. “We have seven runners that are strong, and that is what you want in cross country.”

Senior and two-time 2025 GLIAC Athlete of the Week Madi Szymanski led Northern by keeping her season-long streak alive of top-10 finishes, this time coming in third in 17 minutes, 18.7 seconds.

With this being a five-kilometer (3.1-mile) race instead of the usual collegiate 6K (3.7 miles), Szymanski was able to break a 26-year-old NMU record while beating her personal best by more than a minute.

Freshman Ashley Choponis was right on Szymanski’s heels in fourth in 17:26.3.

Northern’s scorers were rounded out by junior Emma Sweeney in ninth with her own personal record at this distance, senior Beverly Harper 13th and senior Sophia Potter 15th.

NMU also had three more runners in 20th-to-30th-place range to provide insurance for team scoring.

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