{"id":506228,"date":"2026-01-10T13:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506228\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T13:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T13:33:26","slug":"cats-make-short-trip-south-saturday-for-phoenix-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506228\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Cats Make Short Trip South Saturday For Phoenix Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>EVANSTON, Ill. (January 9, 2026) \u2013 <\/strong>After beginning its indoor campaign in early December, Northwestern track returns to action close to home this Saturday at the Phoenix Invitational in Chicago, Ill.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSet to be hosted inside the University of Chicago&#8217;s Henry Crown Fieldhouse in Hyde Park, the Wildcats will kick off action at the meet at 12:25 p.m. CT in the mile run. Northwestern is also slated to compete in the 800m run, 3,000m run, and 4x400m relay. Links to watch and follow live results can be accessed above.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe &#8216;Cats opened their indoor season in style just over a month ago, posting five new additions to the program&#8217;s all-time indoor record boards at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston, Mass.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nNorthwestern put together a dominant all-around showing in the 5,000m run, led by <a href=\"https:\/\/nusports.com\/sports\/womens-cross-country\/roster\/maddy-whitman\/12733\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12733\" target=\"_blank\">Maddy Whitman<\/a> (16:06.50) and <a href=\"https:\/\/nusports.com\/sports\/womens-cross-country\/roster\/ava-criniti\/12719\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12719\" target=\"_blank\">Ava Criniti<\/a> (16:11.46), who moved to third and fourth, respectively, all-time in Wildcat annals in the event.\u00a0 Highlighted by Whitman and Criniti&#8217;s efforts, the &#8216;Cats currently lay claim to five of the Big Ten Conference&#8217;s top 15 5,000m run times.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nCompeting in the 3,000m run, <a href=\"https:\/\/nusports.com\/sports\/womens-cross-country\/roster\/anna-hightower\/12726\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12726\" target=\"_blank\">Anna Hightower<\/a> clocked a 20-second personal best, moving to third in program history with a time of 9:10.78 that currently sits ninth in the Big Ten and 21st nationally.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nMaking her Wildcat debut closer to home at the Cougar Alumni Open on Chicago&#8217;s South Side, <a href=\"https:\/\/nusports.com\/sports\/womens-cross-country\/roster\/olivia-capala\/12735\" rel=\"smarttag noopener\" rev=\"12735\" target=\"_blank\">Olivia Capala<\/a> ascended to seventh on the league leaderboard in the 800m run, cruising to victory in 2:18.70.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFollowing the Phoenix Invitational, Northwestern faces a quick turnaround as it jets west to Seattle, Wash. for the UW Preview, January 16-17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EVANSTON, Ill. (January 9, 2026) \u2013 After beginning its indoor campaign in early December, Northwestern track returns to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":506229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-506228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115871062690661942","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}