By Journal Sports Staff

OSHKOSH, Wis. — The Northern Michigan University women’s track and field team placed third of 11 teams at its first indoor meet of the season, the aptly named Early Bird Open hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

The Wildcats scored 107.5 points, just behind Elmhurst with 116 as the host Titans won with 194. Loras was fourth with 93, with no other team breaking 40 points.

Nearly all the events were held on Saturday, though the majority of the five-event pentathlon started on Friday. In that event, a trio of Wildcats freshmen placed — Eva Zonca in eighth with 2,823 points, Natasha Nowakowski 11th and Alayna Vandegriff 15th.

On Saturday, NMU picked up a half-dozen podium finishes, including two victories.

Seniors Ellyse Wolfrath and Crystal Walker combined to sweep the top two spots in the 60-meter hurdles, Wolfrath winning in 8.69 seconds and Walker runner-up in 8.89.

In addition, Wolfrath’s preliminary heat time of 8.66 seconds was an NCAA Division II national meet provisional qualifying time and is actually the second-fastest time in the nation in this early stage of the season.

The quartet of Wolfrath, senior Ahna Larson, junior Ciara Ostrenga and junior Beverly Harper won the 4-by-400 relay by more than 2 1/2 seconds in 4 minutes, 0.99 of a second.

Junior Emma Sweeney finished second to lead Northern’s dominance in the 3,000 run. Sweeney clocked 10:58.23, while a trio of freshmen teammates also made the top six — Anya VanSweden was fourth in 11:22.09, Ella DeBruyn fifth in 11:22.50 and Lola Korpi sixth in 11:31.32. Korpi was a star runner a year ago at Ishpeming High School.

Harper led a four-runner pack for the Wildcats in the mile. She was third in 5:34.28, while Sweeney was fourth in 5:47.06, VanSweden fifth in 5:53.09 and Korpi sixth in 5:53.60.

In the 400, Ostrenga, who starred at Escanaba High School, was third in 59.31.

In the field, junior Becky Lane was second in the long jump with a leap of 3.35 meters (10 feet, 11 7/8 inches).

Some other top-10 finishes for NMU include Alizabeth Little fourth in the shot put and fifth in the weight throw, Walker fifth in the long jump, freshman Grace Wolfe sixth in the high jump, freshman Ella DeBruyn sixth in the 800, sophomore Kaitlin Smith tied for sixth in the long jump, junior Teiolla Harvey seventh in the shot put and Zonca eighth in the long jump.

The Wildcats get a long holiday break — seven weeks — before resuming action at the Karl Schlender Invitational at Wisconsin-Whitewater on Jan. 25. Northern then keeps busy with an indoor meet every weekend through to the GLIAC Indoor Championships at Saginaw Valley State on March 1-2.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.