Led by senior Madi Szymanski at front center, runners on the Northern Michigan University women’s cross country get out from the starting line at the Wildcat Open exhibition meet held on the NMU campus in Marquette on Aug. 22. (Photo courtesy NMU)

MARQUETTE — Although it’s good exercise, the women’s cross country team at Northern Michigan University will do a lot more than that at the Midwest Regional Championship to be held in southern Wisconsin on Saturday morning.

For the first time in several years, it would seem NMU as a team has a real chance to qualify out of this NCAA Division II regional meet and into the nationals to be held at the same course in Racine, Wisconsin, two weeks later.

Wisconsin-Parkside is hosting each meet with the Wildcats ranked No. 12 in the nation and No. 4 in the Midwest region by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The national ranking is their highest this season.

Advancing to the national meet as an entire team are the top three schools — meaning Northern needs to bypass one team ahead of it to reach that goal. Individual runners from teams not in the top three also have a chance to make nationals with a good finish in Kenosha.

Northern is coming off a solid runner-up finish — its highest place since 2017 — at the conference championships, an excellent showing considering that Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference meet winner Grand Valley State is No. 1 in the nation.

The NMU runners should also be pleased with returning to the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course at Parkside, since they were fourth among 23 teams there earlier in the fall at the Lucian Rosa Invitational.

Fans can follow @NMU_Track_Field and @NMU_Wildcats on X for updates leading up to and during the race, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s cross country schedule for links to the online race page, a meet preview and the Wildcats’ history at the meet.

“We just had a great performance at conference, and now it’s about training well, recovering and sharpening up for regionals,” Northern head coach Jenny Ryan said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the regional. “Grand Valley’s the top-ranked team in the country, so the standard is high. But we’ve been closing the gap, and I’m proud of how our group handled the pressure at conference.

“They went out, executed and finished second after being ranked sixth early in the year. It shows how far we’ve come, and we’re excited to see what we can do in Kenosha.”

With GVSU posting a perfect score of 15 points by grabbing the top six individual times, NMU slotted in right behind the Lakers with 80 points, while Saginaw Valley State was third with 103, Wayne State had 113 and Michigan Tech 127 in the 11-team meet.

The Wildcats did it with both Madi Szymanski, the star all fall in her senior season, and with depth, getting all five of its team-scoring runners in the top 30.

Szymanski kept alive her streak of nothing but top-10 finishes this season by placing 10th in 21 minutes, 5.7 seconds on a six-kilometer (3.7-mile) course in Grand Rapids. She earned First Team All-GLIAC honors, while freshman teammate Ashley Choponis made the Second Team by finishing 16th. Emma Sweeney in 22nd and Lamar Gordon in 23rd also qualified for the Second Team, with Sophia Potter just missing those honors in 27th.

In addition, Northern’s Dani VanLente was 34th, Beverly Harper 37th, Maija Maki-Warne 39th, Madalyn Agren 56th, Lola Korpi 60th, Ella DeBruyn 72nd and Celia Wallace 78th.

Maki-Warne is a Marquette Senior High School graduate, while Korpi is an Ishpeming product.

At last year’s NCAA Midwest Regional, the Wildcats finished 11th among 27 teams, marking its 15th straight top-15 finish.

Szymanski was 40th, VanLente 63rd, Gordon 75th, Harper 80th, Sweeney 108th and Wallace 136th.

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.