Wildcats predicted 2nd in GLIAC cross country
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MARQUETTE -- With the exhibition Wildcat Open now in the rearview mirror, the women's cross country team at Northern Michigan University is getting ready for its regular season to begin.
And the Wildcats and other teams in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference have high expectations of this Northern team, picking them for second place in the conference, only behind national powerhouse Grand Valley State.
NMU can't sneak up on opponents like it did a year ago, when Northern was chosen in only sixth place in the preseason in the 11-team league.
That's because of the Wildcats' success a year ago when they finished runners-up at the GLIAC Championships and fourth among 32 teams in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional meet. The latter finish earned NMU a berth in the NCAA D-II Championships for the first time since 2017, as they finished 24th.
Northern, which also climbed to as high as No. 12 in the national rankings during the 2025 season, may be hard pressed to repeat that success after the graduation of All-American Madi Szymanski.
But another runner who neared Szymanski's success is back, sophomore Ashley Choponis, along with several others providing the team some quality depth.
As a freshman, Choponis was 16th at the GLIAC Championships to earn GLIAC Second Team honors, and 20th at the Midwest Regional for All-Region recognition.
Others providing good depth are junior Ella DeBruyn and senior Lamar Gordon. They placed 1-2 at the Wildcat Open held in Marquette near the Superior Dome and Lake Superior on Aug. 21, DeBruyn winning in 18 minutes, 27.6 seconds and Gordon next in 18:46.0. Choponis came in third in 19:00.2, while Ishpeming native and NMU junior Lola Korpi was fourth in 19:07.4.
Gordon earned All-GLIAC honors last season, while DeBruyn placed a solid 72nd at the GLIAC Championships.
The 25 members of the Northern squad are led by veteran head coach Jenny Ryan, who was named the NMU Coach of the Year over all sports this past school year. She also coaches the Wildcats' women's track and field team.
She has three seniors, eight juniors, four sophomores and 10 freshmen in cross country this fall.
In the GLIAC poll, Grand Valley was a unanimous No. 1 pick after having won the past 25 consecutive league titles, even as Michigan Tech got one first-place vote. Grand Valley's result was the best any team can do in the polling, since teams don't vote for themselves, meaning the GVSU coach would've voted for another team in the top spot, in this case it being MTU.
But the Huskies were only chosen fifth overall, with the Wildcats getting the second-most voting points with 85, six ahead of a tie between third-place Wayne State and Saginaw Valley State.
After Tech in fifth was, in order, Ferris State, Wisconsin-Parkside, Purdue Northwest, Lake Superior State, Davenport and Roosevelt.
Northern officially kicks off its season in just over a week on Saturday, Sept. 12, at 12:30 p.m. EDT at the Phoenix Open hosted by Wisconsin-Green Bay in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Following is one of the biggest cross country meets by participation in the country, the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Friday, Sept. 18. The Wildcats then take three weeks off before two more regular meets, conference championships and NCAA regional and national finals, the last not until the first weekend of December.
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Northern Michigan University's Lola Korpi, an Ishpeming High School graduate, runs to a fourth-place finish in the NMU Wildcat Open cross country meet held near the Superior Dome and along Lake Superior in Marquette on Aug. 21. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)