Great Lakes Wire

Six athletes from Northern Michigan University's track and field team are set to compete in Illinois this weekend. They aim to secure NCAA qualifying times or marks for the upcoming NCAA Championships.

The Carius-Gregory Invitational, hosted by North Central College in Naperville, will feature four Wildcats on Friday. Crystal Walker will participate in the long jump and 100m hurdles, Ellyse Wolfrath in the 100m hurdles, and Ahna Larson and Natalie Pisoke in the 400m hurdles. The events start at 2 p.m. ET.

Simultaneously, Madi Szymanski is scheduled to run the 5K at the Fighting Chance Invite organized by the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. On Saturday, she will be joined by Walker, Wolfrath, Larson, Pisoke, and Beverly Harper competing in the 800m.

Walker currently holds an NCAA provisional mark of 13.84 seconds in the 100m hurdles, ranking her 13th nationally. Wolfrath follows closely with a time of 13.89 seconds at 14th place. In addition to her hurdle performance, Walker is ranked 39th with a long jump distance of 5.89 meters. Szymanski has also achieved an NCAA provisional mark with a time of 16:58.75 in the 5K, placing her at number 58.

For updates during these events, followers can check @NMU_Track_Field on X (formerly Twitter) and @nmu_tfxc on Instagram.

At last weekend's GLIAC Championships, Northern Michigan finished fourth out of ten teams for the second year running with a total of 90 points. Grand Valley emerged victorious with a score of 245.5 points followed by Saginaw Valley and Wayne State.

During these championships, five Wildcats earned podium finishes: Crystal Walker secured second place in the 100m hurdles and third in long jump; Teiolla Harvey took third place in javelin; Ellyse Wolfrath placed third in the same hurdle event as Walker; Emily Czeiszperger achieved her first career podium finish with third place in pole vaulting.

Buax Truckey was recognized as Freshman Track Athlete of the Meet after achieving two top-five finishes.