USTFCCCA News & Notes
By Tyler Mayforth, USTFCCCA October 12, 2018   

MEET PREVIEW: 2018 NCAA DI Pre-National Invitational

“There is probably not another sport in the NCAA, where – in the midseason like this – you will get 18 or 19 teams in the top-30 together for one event. That’s crazy (exciting).” ~ Wisconsin Director of Cross Country and Track & Field Mick Byrne

We’ve never seen an NCAA Division I Pre-National Invitational like we will see take place Saturday morning at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Madison, Wisconsin – for better or for worse.

Let Mick Byrne, the Director of Cross Country and Track & Field at Wisconsin, explain.

For better: “There is probably not another sport in the NCAA, where – in the midseason like this – you will get 18 or 19 teams in the top-30 together for one event. That’s crazy (exciting).”

For worse: “This meet was designed to give schools an opportunity to come in and look at the NCAA course, but its blown open to this absolutely crazy invitational where we now spend the whole weekend having to put together a committee to seed the meet. We went from this opportunity to go look at the cross country course that we’re going to run the national championships on – and now we’re in this big beast of a meet.”

Back in 2009, Byrne created the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational as an alternative destination. Traditionally, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational is contested on the same weekend as the Pre-National Invitational and has recently turned into a truer preview of what fans would see two months later at the NCAA Championships.

It Got Downright Nutty In Wisconsin
Here was the USTFCCCA’s coverage of the 2018 Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, which took place on Friday, September 28.
PREVIEW: Has Nuttycombe Turned Into The True NCAA Predictor?
PREVIEW: You Can Run (Not Hide) At Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational
RECAP: NAU, Colorado Crowned Meet Champions

Well, this year, Wisconsin must not only bake the cake, but portion it out and eat it, too.

Two weeks ago the Badgers hosted the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. This week they’ll welcome 142 teams to their course for the Pre-National Invitational. Then in five weeks, they’ll open their doors once again for the main event – the NCAA Championships.

Before any teams get to the NCAA Championships on Saturday, November 17, they must get through the rest of the season, which – this week – runs through Madison, Wisconsin.

When all is said and done this Saturday, 19 men’s teams and 20 women’s teams that were ranked in the most recent National Coaches’ Polls will have traipsed over the 8K and 6K tracts at the well-manicured Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, respectively.

Ten of those men’s teams are entered in the Cardinal Race (No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 5 Stanford are the heavy hitters), compared to nine in the White Race (No. 2 BYU and No. 4 Portland are the big ones). The women’s races are split right down the middle with 10 ranked teams in the Cardinal Race (No. 1 Colorado, No. 4 Oregon and No. 7 Arkansas are poised for a good battle) and 10 in the White Race (Former No. 1, now No. 3, New Mexico and No. 5 Stanford headline that one).

Breaking It Down In The Badger State
Here is a look at the seeded races at the Pre-National Invitational
Men’s Cardinal
Men’s White
No. 1 Northern Arizona No. 2 BYU
No. 3 Wisconsin No. 4 Portland
No. 5 Stanford No. 8 Syracuse
No. 9 Colorado State No. 10 Air Force
No. 11 Colorado No. 12 Washington
No. 13 Oregon No. 13 Purdue
No. 15 Southern Utah No. 17 Washington State
No. 20 Michigan No. 21 Indiana
No. 22 Ole Miss No. 25 UCLA
No. 26 NC State
Women’s Cardinal
Women’s White
No. 1 Colorado No. 3 New Mexico
No. 4 Oregon No. 5 Stanford
No. 7 Arkansas No. 8 Wisconsin
No. 9 BYU No. 10 Michigan
No. 11 Indiana No. 12 Furman
No. 13 NC State No. 16 Washington
No. 18 Ole Miss No. 20 Utah State
No. 21 Minnesota No. 22 Notre Dame
No. 23 Portland No. 24 Yale
No. 25 Florida State No. 28 Georgia

“The fields are deep, there is no question about that,” Wisconsin women’s cross country head coach Jill Miller said at the same press conference earlier this week. “When you look at the entries, it’s impressive. When you look at the top-10 teams in the country – who’s coming, who’s not – it’s very deep. With that said, it is diluted into the two meets, because of the size this meet has grown into.”

If you split the races even more and called them the Cardinal Invitational and White Invitational and put them on separate days or weekends, they would still be the main course for cross country fans salivating for top-notch action.

And even before the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational debuted in 2009, the Pre-National Invitational never had this much pull. Back in 2008, which was the last year the Pre-National Invitational stood by its lonesome, there were only 10 ranked men’s teams and 12 ranked women’s teams in those races compared to the staggering total we see 10 years later.

Ready or not: Here comes the Pre-National Invitational. You’ll probably never see one like this again.