Lobos Travel to Madison for Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— In the final meet before the Mountain West Championships, The University of New Mexico cross country teams are headed to the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Presented by Under Armour in Madison, Wis., with competition set for Friday morning.

Held at the Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course, the Lobo men and women will face a stacked field with the majority of the teams scheduled to run ranked in the USTFCCCA National Poll.

The Nuttycombe features both No. 1 teams in Arkansas (women) and Northern Arizona (men) and a total of 36 teams in both races. The men will run against 20 ranked teams, six in the top-10, and six teams that are receiving votes, whereas the women will compete against 19 ranked teams, five in the top-10, and four teams that are receiving votes.

There will be two races per gender with the women’s “B” race starting off the morning at 10 a.m. MT and the men’s “B” race to follow at 10:40 a.m. MT. The women’s “A” race is set to begin at 11:20 a.m. MT with the men’s “A” race to conclude the meet with a scheduled start time of noon MT. The women will run 6K and the men 8K.

Running for the Lobos at the premier collegiate meet will be Johanna Briscoe, Mackenzie Everett, Lydia Hallam, Alexandra Harris, Juanita Johnson, Steffi Jones, Weini Kelati, Ednah Kurgat, Gracelyn Larkin, Carisma Lovato, Hannah Nuttall, Brenda Rosales-Coria and Grace Williams in the women’s race and Nehemiah Cionelo, Toby Cooke, Reece Donihi, William Fuller, Jared Garcia, Kristian Uldbjerg Hansen, Iolo Hughes, Harrison Smith III and Max Wharton for the men’s race.

Briscoe, Everett, Hallam, Jones, Lovato, Williams, Uldbjerg Hansen and Smith will be appearing in the “B” races. 

Historically, the Lobos have run in this race every year dating back to 2011, with the women winning the team title twice and producing one individual champion. Additionally, in the last four years, the Lobo women have had at least one runner finish in the top-four, with two runner-up finishers and an individual winner.

UNM won the Nuttycombe in 2017 after scoring 87 points behind Kurgat’s individual win with a time of 19:23.2. Prior to that, the Lobos won in 2015 with 32 team points, the lowest point total for a team in the history of the race, either on the men’s or women’s side. All five scorers that year finished in the top-10 (4-5-6-7-10) led by a fourth-place result by Courtney Frerichs.

Last year, the women finished third with 130 points with Kelati taking second in 19:35.9 and Kurgat right behind her in third at 19:38.8. Garcia led the men’s team as the top finisher in 24:29.8 as the team finished 26th with 617 points. 

The men’s highest finish overall was fifth in 2013 with 251 points, led by a seventh-place showing by Luke Caldwell.

In their last race at the Joe Piane – Notre Dame Invitational on Oct. 4, the Lobo women finished seventh in the Blue Division race with two top-five finishers in Kelati and Kurgat. Kelati won the race in 16:01.61, a full 12 seconds ahead of the next finisher, Wisconsin’s Alicia Monson. Kurgat placed fifth with 16:23.81. The men finished 17th in the team standings with Fuller leading the team with a 55th-place finish.

Live stats will be available HERE and the meet will be streamed on FloTrack, accessible HERE.