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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The cross country season may be two races in, but the heart of the schedule starts this weekend with a true test of cross country heavy hitters as the University of New Mexico cross country teams return to the course this Friday, Sept. 28 with the competitive Nuttycombe Invitational, hosted by the University of Wisconsin.
The Nuttycombe will have two races per gender, with the women’s and men’s “B” races scheduled for 10 a.m. MT and 10:40 a.m., respectively. The women’s “A” race will start at 11:20 a.m., followed by the men’s “A” race at 12 p.m. The women will navigate the 6K course and the men will run an 8K course, which can be found here. The races will also be streamed on FloTrack, which will require a subscription.
Running for the Lobos will be Toby Cooke, Ian Crowe-Wright, Reece Donihi, Jared Garcia, Jonny Glen, Iolo Hughes, Brandon Parrado on the men’s side, and Natasha Bernal, Adva Cohen, Sophie Eckel, Lydia Hallam, Juanita Johnson, Weini Kelati, Kendall Kelly, Ednah Kurgat, Hannah Nuttall, Alondra Negron, Charlotte Prouse and Catrina Thomas will be running for the top-ranked women’s team. Seven women will run in the “A” race and five will run in the “B” race.
Four of New Mexico’s top women’s scorers from this race a year ago will be making a return appearance to the course, which will also serve as their first race this season.
In last year’s Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the Lobo women claimed the team title with Kurgat winning the women’s race in 19:23.2. The Eldoret, Kenya, native won by over 16 seconds. Prouse finished in seventh-place clocking a time of 19:54.3 and Kelati placed 15th with 20:07.5. Negron rounded out the team scoring with an overall time of 20:53.6, placing her 60th.
As a team, the Lobos scored 87 points en route to the team victory, 39 points ahead of second-place San Francisco.
According to the latest USTFCCCA rankings released on Tuesday, there will be seven of the top 10 women’s teams running in Madison and 15 of the 30 ranked teams.
Teams running in the Nuttycombe Invitational will be No. 1 New Mexico, No. 2 Colorado, No. 5 Boise State, No. 6 NC State, No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 8 Villanova, No. 9 Arkansas, No. 13 Penn State, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 17 Iowa State, No. 19 Indiana, No. 25 Providence, No. 27 Georgetown, No. 29 Portland and No. 29 Oklahoma State.
In the men’s race, Glen is the only returning runner from the 2017 race, where he finished in 24:57.1. The men finished 26th in the team standings.
However, this will be the second race of the season for Crowe-Wright, who opened the season winning the Lobo Invitational, as well as Garcia, who finished behind Crowe-Wright in second, Cooke, who finished third, and Hughes, who finished fifth. Parrado also ran in the Lobo Invitational, scoring 14 points for UNM.
The Nuttycombe will be the first of three races that the Lobos will compete at on the Zimmer Championship Course, as they will return to the course on Saturday, Oct. 13 for the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, and the NCAA Championships will also be hosted in Madison on the course.
Below, head coach Joe Franklin discussed the Lobos’ lineup, where the team is at going into the race, and why this particular race is important for the season as a whole.