After a successful opening weekend on the indoor track, Northwestern cross country and track returned to competition for the first time in over a month, opening 2026 at the University of Chicago’s Phoenix Invitational this past Saturday. Racing in a variety of distances and mid-distance events, the Wildcats emerged victorious in all four events that they competed in.
Northwestern’s competitors at the Phoenix Invite included women from DIII UChicago, DIII Concordia University Chicago, the DIII Milwaukee
School of Engineering and the NAIA’s Indiana University Kokomo.
First-year Olivia Capala won the 800-meter race for the Wildcats, clocking a time of 2:14.62 to clear the rest of the field by nearly six seconds. The mark cleared her season-best of 2:18.70. In third was Capala’s teammate Mallory Grubb, who clocked a time of 2:21.88.
The Wildcats had no trouble even when the distance was increased by over two times, as Allegra Massey ran her way to a mile title in a time of 5:10.81. She came out on top ahead of an extremely tight field, where the top five finishers were separated by just 1.11 seconds. UChicago’s Sylvia Snider, who finished second behind Massey, was just 0.32 seconds away from pole position.
Massey showed marked improvement from Northwestern’s last competition in December 2025, where she went 5:13.20 to place fifth in the mile run at the Cougar Alumni Open. Her Saturday time would have placed her in third at the Alumni Open.
Northwestern also had a winner in the longest event of competition, the 3000 meters. There, it was Mia Mraz who clinched first, setting a personal best time of 9:54.50 to win by nearly two seconds. That event was a full-on Wildcat onslaught, as NU also had runners placed second through seventh. Second-place finisher Cary Drake was the other runner aside from Mraz to get under the 10-minute mark, going 9:56.47.
To close out the Invite, Northwestern’s ‘A’ team of Anna Hightower, Maddy Whitman, Ava Criniti and Jacqueline Holman won the 4×400 relay in a time of 4:20.45. Only NU and UChicago competed in the relay, with the Wildcats sending out an ‘A’ and ‘B’ team, while UChicago had an ‘A,’ ‘B’ and ‘C’ team. Both the Wildcats’ ‘B’ team and UChicago’s ‘A’ team were marked as DNF’s for the race.
Northwestern’s squad will split this coming weekend, with some members traveling to the UW Preview in Seattle from Jan. 16 to Jan. 17, while others will stay in Illinois to compete at the Pat Heenan Invitational in Naperville.
