ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The University of New Mexico cross country teams return to Madison, Wis., this time for the Wisconsin Pre-Nationals on Saturday, Oct. 13. The race will take place at the same course as the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, the Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, and will be the same distances of 6K for women and 8K for men.
Live stats will be available here and FloTrack will broadcast the races, but will require a subscription to view.
As the name suggests, the event is supposed to allow teams the opportunity to scope out and compete on the course that will be the site of the NCAA Championships. The opportunity has also meant that the meet has ballooned into a total of 71 men’s and 71 women’s teams entered to run. As a result of the large entry size, there will be two evenly-seeded races per gender, with a “Cardinal” race and a “White” race for both the men and the women.
UNM’s women, currently ranked third in the country, will compete in the White race scheduled to begin at 9:45 MT. Running for the Lobos will be Natasha Bernal, Johanna Briscoe, Adva Cohen, Sophie Eckel, Juanita Johnson, Weini Kelati, Kendall Kelly, Ednah Kurgat, Alondra Negron, Hannah Nuttall, Charlotte Prouse and Catrina Thomas. All of the runners competed in the Nuttycombe two weeks ago, with Kelati (second) as the top-finisher in the championship race, followed by Kurgat (third) and Prouse (seventh) to round out the top-10 finishers. Eckel took the title in the open race of the Nuttycombe.
The Lobos will be the top-ranked team in the White race based on the latest USTFCCCA rankings, joined by fifth-ranked Stanford, eighth-ranked and host Wisconsin, No. 10 Michigan, No. 12 Furman, No. 16 Washington, No. 20 and Mountain West competitor Utah State, No. 22 Notre Dame, No. 24 Yale and No. 28 Georgia.
In total, there are 20 of the top-30 teams competing in the two races, and the field includes Mountain West schools Colorado State, Nevada, San José State and Air Force as well as previously mentioned Utah State. Air Force, Colorado State and Utah State will all be running with UNM in the White race.
New Mexico will have seven entries in the men’s White race that is scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. MT. They include Toby Cooke, Ian Crowe-Wright, Reece Donihi, Jared Garcia, Jonny Glen, Iolo Hughes and Michael Wilson.
The men will be racing against nine ranked teams in No. 2 BYU, No. 4 Portland, No. 8 Syracuse, No. 9 Purdue, No. 10 and Mountain West team Air Force, No. 12 Washington, No. 17 Washington State, No. 21 Indiana and No. 25 UCLA. There are 19 ranked teams running between the two races.
Like the women, the men will be competing against Mountain West schools, running in the same race as Air Force and San José State. Utah State and Colorado State will be in the earlier “Cardinal” race.
The last time that they competed on this course, the women’s team finished third overall and the men 26th in team standings.