Wildcats’ DeBruyn top GLIAC runner for 2nd straight week
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MARQUETTE -- If it ain't broke, Northern Michigan University's Ella DeBruyn sees no reason to fix it.
A week ago, the Wildcats junior was named the Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
So this week, she turned right around and won the same award again, this time leading NMU to the team championship at the Wayne State Warrior Challenge while winning the individual title herself.
DeBruyn continued an impressive stretch, this time recording a winning time on the six-kilometer (3.7-mile) course in 21 minutes, 29.9 seconds.
That was just over two seconds ahead of runner-up Elise Peckinpaugh of the University of Indianapolis.
Northern beat out nine other schools, eight actually scoring points, with 35 points as national No. 30 Saginaw Valley State was a rather distant runner-up with 75. Host Wayne State was third with 78, while former GLIAC member Northwood was fourth with 122 as Lake Superior State turned in an eighth-place performance with 182.
DeBruyn also won the race at the Lucian Rosa Invitational held on the campus of Wisconsin-Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin, two weeks earlier.
But the new Wildcats star was far from a one-woman team, a strategy that would never work in this sport.
She had solid backing with sophomore Ashley Choponis finishing third in 21:52.5, less than 30 seconds off the winning pace, while senior teammate Lamar Gordon was fifth in 22:13.4.
Also for the Wildcats, junior Anya VanSweden was 12th in 22:54.8 and senior Dani Van Lente 14th in 22:56.9, placing all five of their scoring runners ahead of any other team's third-best athlete.
NMU freshman Addison Jones was 19th in 23:05.5, junior and Ishpeming product Lola Korpi 26th in 23:22.8, junior Celia Wallace 38th in 23:36.1, freshman Macy Guikema 40th in 23:44.7, freshman Tania Boonstra 42nd in 23:48.5, sophomore and Marquette graduate Maija Maki-Warne 45th in 23:54.7, and freshman Audrey Hamilton 47th in 23:55.8.
Northern had some other finishers, too, with junior Emma Dell placing 61st, freshman Quinn Mangerson 63rd, junior Madalyn Agren 64th, freshman Sophia Nunnery 67th, freshman Sarah Stein 74th, junior Samantha Zolnierek 77th, freshman Amber VanLoon 78th, freshman Lola Champlin 86th, freshman Annie Hamilton 9th, junior Taryn Maki 103rd and senior Lana Mac 108th.
The Wildcats look to continue their momentum in their final regular-season meet, the Husky Invitational hosted by Michigan Tech in Houghton at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
The GLIAC Championships are set for Purdue Northwest in Hammond, Indiana, the following Friday, with NCAA Division II regional and national meets set after that.
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Northern Michigan University's Ella DeBruyn leads the field of Wildcat runners and would win by nearly 20 seconds 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)