Northwestern ran in big at this year’s NCAA Division I Midwest Regional meet in Ames, Iowa. The team, ranked No. 21 heading into the meet, scored 113 points — 22 more than second place — to finish 3rd at the meet. The podium finish marks their fifth top-three finish at regionals under coach Jill Miller, who was recently named Big Ten Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year.
On top of placing third as a team, the Wildcats had 2 runners secure All-Region accolades by the United States Track & Field
and Cross Country Coaches Association. Senior Ava Criniti and fifth-year Skye Ellis placed 11th and 13th, and both ran under 20 minutes.
Criniti rolled in with a time of 19:42.9, just seven tenths of a second off from her 6k best. Nonetheless, the time is what got her to her second All-Region status, and is what led the team through the meet.
Ellis also followed up her All-Big Ten performance with a 19:44.1, which earned her All-Region and a personal best. Ellis beat her previous NCAA Championships time by over six seconds.
The final three of the scoring five were Katie Clute, Cary Drake and Jackie Holman. Clute and Drake finished back-to-back, placing 27th and 28th with times of 20:09.2 and 20:11.9, respectively. Drake’s time was a massive PB, outpacing her 2025 Loyola Lakefront Invitational time by almost 40 seconds. Holman, who placed 34th in the race, ran 20:20.4 and helped keep the points low.
Maddy Whitman, three seconds behind Holman, and freshman Isabel Mahoney, who ran a 20:40.4, were the sixth and seventh runners for the squad and finished well to round out the team’s performance.
The Wildcats now sit back and wait until Saturday to see if they get a chance at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Nov. 21. After their performance on Friday and earlier at the Big Ten Championships, the team looks to receive an at-large berth.
