DeBruyn leads Wildcats runners to 4th at GLIAC meet
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WESTVILLE, Ind. -- As she has all season, junior Ella DeBruyn led the women's cross country team of Northern Michigan University at the conference championships on Friday afternoon at the campus of Purdue Northwest University.
She led the Wildcats to a fourth-place finish at the 11-school women's meet that decides the championship in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
DeBruyn was NMU's lone top-10 finisher, taking eighth place on the six-kilometer (3.7-mile) course in 21 minutes, 34.74 seconds, as Northern scored 104 points. Her pace was listed as 5:47 per mile.
Grand Valley won the team championship for the 25th consecutive year -- the Lakers have won every title since 2001, with no meet held during the COVID pandemic year of 2020 -- with a near-perfect 19 points. Michigan Tech was a distant second with 78, while Saginaw Valley State had 84.
Following the Wildcats was Wayne State in fifth with 25, while Ferris State had 206, Purdue NW 224, Lake Superior State 228, Wisconsin-Parkside 231, Davenport 279 and Roosevelt in 11th with 335.
DeBruyn was Northern's lone GLIAC First Team honoree by breaking into the top 10, while a pair of teammates earned GLIAC Second Team as they finished in the second 10.
NMU sophomore Ashley Choponis was 11th in 21:49.53, missing the 10th-place cutoff for First Team honors by about 20 seconds. And Wildcats senior Lamar Gordon was 16th in 22:02.62. Choponis had a pace of 5:51 per mile, Gordon right behind in 5:55.
Northern freshman Addison Jones was 38th in 22:56.52, junior Anya VanSweden 45th in 23:08.35, junior and Ishpeming graduate Lola Korpi 46th in 23:08.46, and senior Dani Van Lente 47th in 23:12.31.
Marquette graduate and NMU sophomore Maija Maki-Warne was 60th in 23:32.36, freshman Macy Guikema 63rd in 23:34.53 and freshman Audrey Hamilton 64th in 23:38.10 as 107 runners finished in a field of 125.
Grand Valley's near-perfect score -- 15 points is perfect -- came from the first, second, third, sixth and seventh finishers, while the Lakers also had runners in position Nos. 9, 10, 13, 17 and 22.
GVSU senior Allie Arnsman won in 20:35.55, about 25 seconds ahead of senior teammate Karen Kiratu in 21:01.13.
NMU isn't finished with its season, however, with the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Championships scheduled for the Wisconsin-Parkside campus in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Nov. 21.
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Northern Michigan University's Ella DeBruyn leads the field of Wildcat runners in the NMU Wildcat Open cross country meet held near the Superior Dome in Marquette on Aug. 21. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)