No. 16 Arkansas among stellar field in Nuttycombe Invitational

FAYETTEVILLE – A total of 21 nationally ranked top 30 schools are among a field of 35 teams entered in the men’s 8,000m race at the Nuttycombe Invitational hosted by Wisconsin on the Thomas Zimmer Championship course this Friday, October 9.

Coverage of the men’s race, which starts at 11:10 a.m. CT, will be available through subscription service runnerspace.com while live results will be available through pttiming.com.

“We’re really excited, this is why we go to this meet to face the best of the best,” said Razorback men’s cross country coach Cale Wallace. “There are nine teams in field who are ranked ahead of us in the latest poll. We’re excited to get out there an run against that level.”

Top ranked New Mexico leads the strong field followed by No. 2 Iowa State, No. 6 Colorado, No. 7 BYU, and No. 8 Wake Forest. Additional ranked programs among the top 20 nationally include No. 11 Northern Arizona, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 13 Washington, No. 15 Stanford, No. 17 Washington State, No. 18 Michigan State, and No. 19 Harvard.

Arkansas, nationally ranked No. 16 following a team win two weeks ago at the Gans Creek Classic, is one of seven SEC schools in the meet. The others include No. 10 Florida, No. 22 Tennessee, No. 26 Georgia, No. 29 Missouri, Oklahoma, and Ole Miss.

“Our goal at the end of the month is to win SECs,” noted Wallace. “When going up against conference foes, you want to make sure you beat them. Florida’s the only one ranked ahead of us right now in this field and Tennessee ran real well in Missouri.

“So, keeping those teams in mind and trying to beat them will be the focus. We’ll see what they have. I think they should be running their full squad, I think most people will be at this point. It should give us a pretty good look at what to expect at the end of the month.”

In leading the Razorbacks to a team victory, Ernest Cheruiyot (22:32.8) and Nick Busienei (22:34.0) produced the top two times over 8k this season in finishing first and second in the Gans Creek Classic race.

“With Ernest and Nick, with how they raced at Missouri and did what they wanted with that field, we’ll likely see more tactical racing from them this week in Wisconsin,” stated Wallace. “There’s a lot of really good individuals, not just from the teams that are really good, but even some from teams who are ranked behind us.

“You have to be a little more tactical when you race a field of this ability level. Even for someone like AJ Bonnesen, who has a big goal this year of being an All-American (top 40) at the NCAA meet. This is a good opportunity to race in a field of this caliber and try to simulate what’s he going to need to do a nationals. That’s not get into the race and be 40th right away, but start further back and grind your way through the field.

“I’d like to see James Sankei replicate that strategy this week as well. In Missouri, he went up to the front and stuck in it. I’d like to see him kind of replicate a running from behind strategy. We’ve had a lot of conversations about it. He’s intrigued by the idea, but I’m not sure he’s completely sold on it.”

Teams in the Nuttycombe Invitational ranked higher than 20th nationally include No. 21 Butler, No. 23 Eastern Kentucky, No. 27 Michigan, and No. 30 Georgetown. Comprising the rest of the field are Air Force, Boise State, Furman, Gonzaga, Lipscomb, Louisville, Minnesota, Portland, Princeton, Providence, Tulsa, and UCLA.

“For Trey Caldwell and Trenton Sandler, it will be a big experience as this meet is by far the most competitive field either has raced in,” said Wallace. “Each guy, no matter if you’re No. 1 or No. 7, they’re going to have their own mission, or battle, to try to help the team on Friday.”