Michigan
Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational
Wolverines to Face Toughest Regular-Season Test at Wisconsin
10/11/2017 4:11:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
» The No. 25 Wolverines are among the 20 teams in the field at Wisconsin ranked top-30 in the latest national coaches' poll, providing an invaluable opportunity for head-to-head wins.
» Led by Ben Flanagan, Michigan will look to duplicate the pack-running mentality that made it among the deepest teams in its last outing at Notre Dame.
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THIS WEEK
Friday, Oct. 13 -- Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational (Zimmer Championship Course / Madison, Wis.) 1 p.m. CDT
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More than two-thirds of the nation's highest-ranked teams are set to compete alongside the the 25th-ranked University of Michigan men's cross country squad at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational on Friday (Oct. 13), in what will be the deepest field the Wolverines will face all year outside the NCAA Championships.
In total, 20 of the top 30 teams in the nation -- including defending national champion No. 1 Northern Arizona and four other top-10 squads -- and eight others receiving national votes will toe the starting line for the 1:45 p.m. CDT race over the eight-kilometer (4.97-mile) course at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course at Wisconsin.
In addition to Michigan and NAU, the field will also feature No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 Southern Utah, No. 10 Furman, No. 11 Colorado State, No. 13 Iona, No. 14 Iowa State, No. 15 Boise State, No. 16 Illinois, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 Virginia, No. 20 UCLA, No. 21 Indiana, No. 23 Air Force, No. 25 Portland, No. 28 Wisconsin, No. 29 Washington State and No. 30 Columbia. Also racing are squads receiving votes in the national poll in Washington, Eastern Kentucky, Tulsa, Eastern Michigan, Penn, Purdue, Minnesota and California.
"I think we're really looking forward to the challenge," head coach Kevin Sullivan said. "We had a good performance at Notre Dame, but it definitely was not our best day -- which is fine, because we want to get better as the year goes on -- and I feel like the last two weeks we've seen a ramp-up in consistency in practice. I'm just excited to finally see how we stack up against the rest of the country."
This will be the Wolverines' first trip back to Madison since finishing fifth at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional a year ago and not advancing to the NCAA Championships. But with top runner, redshirt senior Ben Flanagan, back in uniform and a year of growth from the entire squad, the Wolverines are reloaded and primed for a return to the Big Dance on Nov. 18 in Louisville, Kentucky.
Michigan made a statement at Notre Dame two weekends ago with a fourth-place finish over three teams ranked top-30 at the time in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll, but Sullivan knows the team is capable of even more.
"The biggest mistake we made as a team at Notre Dame that we were too complacent early in the race," Sullivan said. "We ran very, very well over the last three miles of the race, but we fell asleep early. It just meant we had so much ground to make up that, had we positioned ourselves better early, we were probably one or two spots higher in the standings.
"At Wisconsin, you're talking about twice the number of teams, twice the number of ranked teams, and if you fall asleep out there, those are teams that are not coming back to you."
Flanagan and redshirt seniors Connor Mora and Billy Bund led what was one of the deepest lineups at Notre Dame -- no team had six runners across the finish line before the Wolverines sixth -- and they will once again need that depth to contend with perhaps the second-most potent field they will face all year.
Entering as the 17th-highest-ranked team in the field, the Wolverines will look to move up in the final standings and rack up as many head-to-head victories as possible. While the Wolverines have a good chance to earn one of the NCAA Great Lakes Region's two automatic berths to the NCAAs -- they are currently ranked third in the region -- at regionals next month, the other path to an NCAA Championships return is accumulating victories in the hopes of earning one of 13 at-large berths to nationals.
"We are in a difficult region and I'm confident that we can be a team that gets an automatic spot, but it's nice to have a backup in your pocket if we have a guy who gets sick or we have an off day," Sullivan said. "It would be nice to beat some teams to help solidify our spot at the national championships. It doesn't guarantee anything, but it puts us in a good spot moving forward.
The meet will also serve as an opportunity to race against opponents the team potentially will see multiple times in the postseason. Big Ten rivals Illinois, Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Purdue and Wisconsin are all in the field and the race will feature five teams from the Great Lakes Region.
Flanagan will once again lead the way for the Wolverines, as he has done in each of their three meets so far this season. After two wins to kick off his season, Flanagan weathered a hot early pace and raced to a 14th-place finish at Notre Dame in a five-mile race that was virtually the same distance as this weekend's competition.
Two years ago, Flanagan was 29th overall in this race, followed by Mora (51st) and fellow redshirt senior Aaron Baumgarten in (62nd).
Mora and Bund crossed the line side-by-side at Notre Dame in 30th and 31st, a strong result especially for Mora in his season debut race. Bund's finish was a continuation of his hot start to 2017, having finished No. 2 on the Michigan roster twice and third once.
Also making his season debut at Notre Dame was Baumgarten, last year's top runner in Flanagan's injury absence. After a 55th-place finish in South Bend, Indiana, he has had two more weeks of training under his belt to get closer to the form he showed last year with five top-10 finishes.
With Flanagan, Bund, Mora and Baumgarten providing strong senior leadership for the squad, several Wolverines underclassmen have grown into ever-improving and consistent contributors to the scoring lineup.
Redshirt freshman Isaac Harding is successfully following up on last year's Team USA experience at the IAAF World Junior Cross Country Championships as a scoring staple for Michigan. He finished just seconds behind Mora and Bund at Notre Dame two weeks ago.
Redshirt sophomores Keenan Rebera and Ben Hill -- Michigan's fifth and sixth men at Notre Dame -- had breakthrough races at Notre Dame in 46th and 47th, respectively, and redshirt freshman Jacob Branch was not far behind as the Wolverines' seventh man in 53rd.
THE FIELD
No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 Syracuse, No. 4 Stanford, No. 6 Southern Utah, No. 10 Furman, No. 11 Colorado State, No. 13 Iona, No. 14 Iowa State, No. 15 Boise State, No. 16 Illinois, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 Virginia, No. 20 UCLA, No. 21 Indiana, No. 23 Air Force, No. 25 Michigan, No. 25 Portland, No. 28 Wisconsin, No. 29 Washington State, No. 30 Columbia, Washington (receiving votes), Eastern Kentucky (RV), Tulsa (RV), Eastern Michigan (RV), Penn (RV), Purdue (RV), Minnesota (RV), California (RV)
A LOOK AHEAD
Friday, Oct. 20 -- at Eastern Michigan Fall Classic (Dexter, Mich.)
Sunday, Oct. 29 -- at Big Ten Championships (Bloomington, Ind.)
Friday, Nov. 10 -- at NCAA Great Lakes Regional (Terre Haute, Ind.)
Saturday, Nov. 18 -- at NCAA Championships (Louisville, Ky.)
Tweet of the Day
HUGE race for the guys at Wisconsin this Friday.
— Michigan T&F / XC (@UMichTrack) October 10, 2017
20 of the @ustfccca top-30 teams are in the field.
Don't miss it.
Fri / 1pm CDT pic.twitter.com/SHkhKeriLK
Players Mentioned
