Oct. 26, 2007

EVANSTON, Ill.-- In the last year of April Likhite's first coaching stint at Northwestern, the Wildcats finished fifth at the Big Ten Championships. Since she has departed, the 'Cats' highest finish was sixth in 2001, but has been 11th in the past two years.

Likhite has now once again revived the program and seeks an improvement on the past few years at Sunday's 5k Big Ten Championships, run at Ohio State University's golf course in Columbus, Ohio. NU has been riding strong leadership from junior Carly Brown (Kalispell, Mont./Flathead) and Celia Franklin (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier). As the team's co-captains, Brown and Franklin have placed no worse than third on the team in every meet in the 2007 season and have high hopes for the upcoming Championships.

"We are healthy and have had a great two weeks of training. A coach couldn't ask for more as we head into the biggest race of our season," Likhite said. "Sunday presents us with an excellent opportunity to show the Big Ten conference the turnaround our team has made in just one year."

NU is coming off a strong performance at the Bradley Classic, where it finished third out of 17 teams competing. In the meet, seven Wildcat runners finished in the top 50, leading NU to a finish above cross-town rivals DePaul and Illinois-Chicago.

Following the meet, the 'Cats get a two-week break before it runs in the NCAA Regionals in Peoria, Ill.