Cross Country: Northwestern reaches the podium at Lakeshore Invitational.

The No. 12 Northwestern cross country team secured third place at the Lakefront Invitational held at Loyola Chicago on Friday. The event featured 17 teams from across the nation, including Virginia and Minnesota, which entered the race ranked 20th and 24th, respectively. Northwestern's senior Ava Criniti crossed the finish line first, officially placing her in 9th position.

She set a season-best time of 19:42, which was more than three minutes faster than her initial time of the season three weeks ago in Wisconsin. Cary Drake, a junior for Northwestern, finished second overall with a time of 19:49; his fastest closing kilometer, 3:10.3, helped him move up from 19th to 16th place. The team as a whole improved their standing by 6 positions between the 5th and 6th kilometers, clinching third place overall.

Graduate student Skye Ellis and senior Jackie Holman secured the remaining top-10 finishes with placements of 23rd and 35th, respectively. Ellis was the last Northwestern runner to post a sub-20 minute time, finishing in 19:58, while Holman crossed the line at 20:09. Sophomore Eliza Nicholson contributed the final scoring runner, placing 40th with a time of 20:12.

Her initial performance in the first kilometer saw her in 70th position, but a strong race-long effort brought her up to 40th place, resulting in a podium finish for the Wildcats. Junior Kailey Zagst and graduate student Sophie Magson rounded out Northwestern's top 7, with both finishing with personal season-best times of 20:22 and 21:29, respectively.

Northwestern's final score of 123 points placed them ahead of fourth-place Vanderbilt by 27 points and just 11 points shy of Minnesota's total. The Virginia Cavaliers emerged as the race winners with 71 points. Northwestern now takes a two-week break before heading to Madison, Wisconsin on October 9th for the Nuttycombe Invitational, where they will compete against 33 other teams, including No. 2 New Mexico and No. 4 Iowa State.