Track: Crinti, Ellis shine as Northwestern finishes 13th at Big Ten Championships

Northwestern women’s track rode strong individual performances from Ava Crinti and Skye Ellis to a 13th-place finish at the Big Ten Championships held in Indianapolis.

The event took place on the Indiana State Fairgrounds and included all 18 BIG teams. The postseason event was NU’s last of the indoor track season after finishing up its regular season last week at the Margaret Bradley Invitational.

The NU postseason started on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. with the 5000-meter race. Ava Criniti, who holds the second-fastest time in the 5000 in NU track history, led four NU representatives to the start line. Despite not setting a personal best or challenging the school record, Criniti’s time of 15:58 was good for sixth in the event and earned Northwestern three points for the overall championship. Maddy Whitman also put forth a strong performance, her 16:03 placing seventh and earning the ‘Cats two points. Whitman was in eleventh place 4400 meters into the race (only the top eight earn points for their teams), before she ran three of her four fastest 200 meter splits to push her way up the leaderboard. Jackie Holman finished 14th in the event and Mia Mraz finished 31st.

An hour later, Northwestern took the track again for the Distance Medley Relay. Anna Hightower, Olivia Capala, Cary Drake and Skye Ellis formed the four-woman unit that ran NU’s best time of the year, improving from 11:14 to 10:58, and finished fourth to take home five points. The two events combined to give Northwestern ten points on the day, putting it heavily in the mix for the Big Ten Championship after 24 hours.

Friday was a qualifying day in which NU competed in the women’s mile and the 800-meter. In the mile, Skye Ellis ran a personal best time of 4:38, placing third overall, second in her heat, and qualifying for Saturday’s final. Cary Drake also competed in the mile, posting a personal best time of 4:46, but her 15th-place finish did not qualify her for the next race. It was the first-year’s second time running the event this season. She won her only other appearance in the mile at the Blue Demon Alumni Classic.

The ‘Cats only had one participant in the 800-meter qualifiers. Olivia Capala posted a time of 2:16, finishing 27th and thus not qualifying for Saturday.

On Saturday, Skye Ellis was once again an impactful figure. She ran a 4:40 in the mile, placing fourth and earning NU another five points. Ellis’ middle of the race was slower compared to Friday, and she sat in sixth or seventh for a majority of the race, but her closing 200 meters sealed the deal and put her in the winner’s circle.

Northwestern had five runners compete in the 3000-meter event. Anna Hightower ran a 9:16 and placed ninth, while Jackie Holman ran a 9:17 and placed tenth, both narrowly missing the cutoff that would have earned team points. Criniti finished 12th in the event, Whitman 20th and Drake 37th.

Overall, Northwestern finished with 15 points, placing seven points behind Indiana in 12th. Atop the leaderboard were Oregon and Illinois, who had 101 and 93 points, respectively.

After a successful indoor track season featuring abundant personal bests and several school records, the Wildcats will now embrace the changing weather and turn their attention to the start of the outdoor track season in late March.