HOUGHTON, Mich. â€Â“ The Northern Michigan University womenâ€Â™s cross country team ran away with the U.P. Championship at Michigan Tech onFriday afternoon.  The â€Â˜Cats with five of the top six runners took the titlewith 18 points followed by MTU with 43 and Finlandia had 85.

Stephanie Howe captured individual honors by running a19:10.21.  Teammate, Jane Stieber was second with a clocking of 19:56.18. Fourth through sixth went to the â€Â˜Cats as Kelly Ahern led the way with a timeof 20:02.80 followed by Maria Stuber (20:13.16) and Brooke Rediger (20:14.88).

Jessica Kalafut was ninth (20:19.59), Brittney Coehoorn in12^th place had a time of 20:32.94, she was followed by Laura Dewittin 13^th (20:45.13) and Jenny Weidmeyer in 14^th(20:48.44).  Danielle Stein was 16th with a time of 20:52.19 teammate BibianeMahy was next (20:59.26).  Stephanie Mishica in the 21^st spot(21:20.63) and Stephanie Ostrenga in the 22^nd slot (21:21.56)rounded out the runners for the â€Â˜Cats.

The team will be running again in two weeks at the ParksideInvite in Kenosha, Wis.