Noel Black just keeps going.

The third-year cross country runner for Lake Superior State finished second at the season-opening Northwood Invitational in a 5K race, posting a time of 18:50.6. It's an outstanding start to the 2026-27 campaign for Black, who set a school record in the Outdoor Track and Field 5,000-Meter Run back in April at the Elaine Leigh Invitational.

"Very pleased," declared Laker Head Coach Matt Stith. "That's actually, more or less, the part of the finishing order we expected her to be in. She's had a very solid few weeks of training and is ready to establish herself in the upper echelon of runners in our area. Excited to see that start to unfold in front of the fans and the rest of the team. She did a great job for us and there's still plenty of improvement to come."

Black continues to impress for LSSU. Last October, she placed ninth at the Muskegon Community College Jayhawk Invitational. Still, Stith pointed out that this was just the start for Black and her Laker teammates. They're focused on preparing for the Bulldog Invitational at Adrian College later this month.

"We're still in a fairly heavy training cycle right now. We approached this race more from what it did for us as a training exercise than a competition, per se. It'll be pretty high volume and solid intensity for the next week and a half before we catch our breath and get ready to race at Adrian. It's going to be hard work for these next couple of weeks."

First-year runner Bailey Wenzlick enjoyed a stellar debut for Lake State, finishing ninth at the Northwood Invitational with a time of 19:34.0. Stith praised her effort, noting that debuts when moving up to the collegiate level are difficult.

"As you can imagine, we're very pleased that Bailey came out of the gate for us so strong," he said. "It's kind of a mental challenge for athletes in their first race at a new level of competition, and she looked very much at home and very quickly felt at home racing women at this level. She should. She belongs. We're very excited about her prospects going forward. The next step will be to transition up to the 6K distance in her next competition."

For the men's Cross Country team, Birk Seagren led the pack, finishing 18th at 21:20.3. Gavin Guggemos finished two places behind in 20th, at 21:22.5. Debutant Jack Capes finished at 22:11.3, an excellent first event as a collegiate runner. Stith highlighted one of his other rookie runners, too.

"Daniel Bowerman, a freshman runner out of Sault Area High School. All the same caveats about running at the college level and racing at a new distance. He probably went out a little too fast and got excited early. Rather than letting that collapse his race, he regrouped in the middle of the race and handled the situation very maturely. He put together a really strong back half of his race. We're really, really pleased with that debut run for him."

The Lakers return to competition at Adrian College in two weeks at the Bulldog Invitational. Follow the team on the new Lake Superior State Lakers app, now available on the App Store and Google Play.