Women’s Championship | Women’s Open | Men’s Championship
MADISON, WIS.— Heading into the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, head coach Joe Franklin commented that, “The quality of the meet is the closest that you will find to the NCAA Championships. The meet is so competitive that a team can’t be successful there and not be a quality team. The meet does not allow for a false sense how good a team is.”
For the University of New Mexico women’s cross country team, the competition was elite- going up against 15 of the current top-30 ranked teams, including seven in the top 10- and the expectations for the Lobos were high as the No. 1 team in the country, but they held their own, placing two runners in the top-three and three runners in the top-10.
The women offered their first glimpse of their potential 2018 lineup as they took to the Zimmer Cross Country Championship Course on Friday at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, finishing third in the team standings with 130 points with perhaps the biggest upside provided by sophomore Weini Kelati.
A year after sophomore Ednah Kurgat reintroduced herself at the Nuttycombe Invitational, Kelati put herself in the conversation as a force as the top-finisher for the Lobos, finishing runner-up in 19:35.9, followed by junior Kurgat, who crossed at 19:38.8. Senior Charlotte Prouse gave New Mexico its third top-10 finisher with a seventh-place showing of 19:55.0. For Prouse, the result marks back-to-back Nuttycombe Invitationals that she has finished seventh, and the third-straight top-10 finish in the meet.
In their first races as Lobos, Adva Cohen finished with a time of 20:28.1 for 35th and Hannah Nuttall ran a 21:04.7 to finish 83rd to score the final points for the team standing.
With the course serving as the site of the Lobos’ next race and the NCAA Championships, the women attempted to get comfortable navigating the terrain early on, pushing out in front as part of the lead group.
Through the first 2K, the Lobos had four runners in the top-six, with Kurgat, Prouse, Cohen and Kelati in first, third, fourth and sixth, respectively. Kurgat remained in front at the 4K marker, closely followed by Boise State’s Allie Ostrander and Kelati. Prouse dropped back to 14th and Cohen 29th with 2K remaining, but Prouse was able to recover in the remaining portion of the race, moving up seven spots to finish in the top-10.
Kelati was edged out by Wisconsin’s Alicia Monson for the title, but the sophomore improved her time from last year’s Nuttycombe race by 31.6 seconds to take the runner-up spot.
On the men’s side, the men matched their performance last year in team standings at 26th, but improved on the team score by 34 points with 617, just eight points shy of 25th.
Jared Garcia was the first Lobo to finish the 8K race, coming in at 24:29.8 for 103 points. Closely behind him, and just 0.8 seconds later, Toby Cooke recorded a 24:30.6 for 106 points. Ian Crowe-Wright followed at 24:38.8 (123 points) and Jonny Glen (128 points), the only male runner to have competed on the course previously, clocked 24:40.7. Reece Donihi completed the team score when he crossed the line at 24:54.8, giving UNM 157 team points.
Iolo Hughes (25:39.5) and Brandon Parrado (27:35.4) brought to a close the men’s race and the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational for the Lobos.
In the women’s open race, Sophie Eckel was the top-finisher, improving on her time and her place from a year ago to win the race. The sophomore from Australia crossed the line at 20:58.8, shaving 13.9 seconds off of her previous Nuttycombe time and finishing over three seconds ahead of the next runner.
Alondra Negron finished just outside of the top-10 with a time of 21:25 to place 11th overall and Kendall Kelly finished in 21:38.6 for 20th. Juanita Johnson (21:51.9) and Lydia Hallam (22:44.2) rounded out the finishers for the Lobos in the open race.
Up next for the Lobos is a return trip to Madison and the Zimmer Championship Course for the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Saturday, Oct. 13.