It’s Time To Run At Nuttycombe

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story originally appeared on the USTFCCCA Facebook page on October 15, 2015 as part of “Facebook Feature Friday.” It has been edited for clarity, and updated to include current branding and teams. CLICK HERE to read the original post.

“From a spectators’ point of view and marketing our sport, it’s fantastic. People are talking about it on social media, the national rankings are bound to change and it has really taken on this whole persona of its own.” ~ Wisconsin head coach Mick Byrne

It started as a modest proposal.

Wisconsin coach Mick Byrne, frustrated with the pre-national system in NCAA Division I Cross Country, decided to host his own meet that same weekend. He also wanted to show off the brand-new Thomas Zimmer Championship Course and planned to invite 8-10 teams per gender, per year, to Madison, Wisconsin.

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And thus, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational was born in 2009.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, word got out.

By 2012, the original plan of 16-20 teams ballooned to 83. Seventy-four teams toed the starting line in the championship races in 2014. That number was eventually trimmed down to 67 four years later.

“I mean, the course can hold everybody – but this meet grew into a monstrosity,” Byrne said back in 2015. “As it turns out, a lot of other coaches were tired of how the seeded races worked at the Pre-National Invitational and wanted another option.”

While Byrne bemoans the size of the meet and how it takes an oversized role in the NCAA championship qualifying process, he understands the importance of the meet when it comes to generating excitement for the sport.

“There is a lot of hype surrounding it, for better or worse,” Byrne said. “From a spectators’ point of view and marketing our sport, it’s fantastic. People are talking about it on social media, the national rankings are bound to change and it has really taken on this whole persona of its own.

“One of the best things about this meet is that people understand head-to-head competition: Iona against Wisconsin against Stanford against Syracuse and so on. Every coach is going to run a full team and race hard. There is no hiding out here.”

Time is a flat circle. Ten years later, all four of those teams are entered. Three of them are nationally ranked: No. 7 Wisconsin, No. 11 Syracuse, and No. 18 Stanford. They’re three of 18 men’s teams from the most recent National Coaches’ Poll that will race tomorrow at 12:30 pm CT, compared to 19 ranked women’s teams that will line up 40 minutes earlier.