Highly Touted Nuttycombe Invite Next for Cross Country

EAST LANSING, MICH. - Both men's and women's cross country will be putting their A-squads forward at the highly-regarded Nuttycombe Invitational presented by Under Armour on Friday, Sept. 13 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The invitational's routes on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course will be set up for a 8-kilometer men's race and a 6-kilometer women's race with fields of over 30 of the nations best collegiate cross country teams. Earlier in the week the U.S. Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association ranked the Spartan women 14th in the nation while the men were also receiving votes.

MSU Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Lisa Breznau's teams are coming off 13 days rest of intense competition since the also-stacked Joe Piane Invitational in South Bend, Indiana that saw the men place fifth and the women second in the open race. In the last two meets the men have been led by senior Alexander Penski while the women have been led by senior Katie Osika.

An annual event circled on the Spartans' calendar each year, the teams are aiming for improved results from past years at what is regarded as the biggest regular-season event. The women aim to crack the top-10 for the first time since their fifth place finish in 2019 while the men hope to do so for the first time since 2017. The last time an MSU team tallied the most points to win the Nuttycombe Invitational was the women's team in 2014, that also won the programs first National Championship that year.

The races will be broadcast on BTN+, with the women's A race beginning noon ET, and the men's race starting at 12:40 p.m..

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Players Mentioned

Katie Osika

Alexander Penski