On Friday, the Iowa State cross country teams will head to Madison, Wis., to compete in the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. The invite will host 38 universities and will take place at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, beginning at 12:20 p.m.

The men’s team comes into Friday’s race No. 6 in the country after a second-place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational. Wesley Kiptoo, Thomas Pollard, Gable Sieperda and Ryan Ford will look to finish in the top-10 once again.

The No. 6 Cyclones won’t be the only top-25 team at the event. The field includes No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 6 Iowa State, No. 9 Oregon, No. 10 Furman, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 12 Tulsa, No. 13 Washington, No. 14 Iona, No. 15 Michigan, No. 16 Butler, No. 19 Gonzaga and No. 21 Southern Utah.

This will mark year 10 of the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, which has built a fierce competition and tradition for many years. In 2014, Iowa State’s Crystal Nelson took 1st place in the Nuttycombe invite, finishing the 6k in 19:35.

Due to COVID-19, the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational did not take place last year. In 2019, the University of Arkansas took 1st place as a team, and Alicia Monson from the University of Wisconsin earned 1st place with a 19:39.3 finish. 

The Cyclones have had a steady start as they approach the season’s midpoint, taking first place at the Hawkeye Invitational and second place at the Roy Griak Invitational.

Iowa State has been consistently ranked, seeing improvement each week. After being ranked No. 25 in the past weeks, the Cyclones are currently No. 22 going into the invite Friday. 

In her first race of the season, senior Cailie Logue earned first place at the Roy Griak Invite, finishing in 20:57.9. After not competing in the first race in Iowa City, Logue took home a huge win, with over 234 runners total. 

There will be an “A” race at 12:20 p.m. and a “B” race at 11 a.m. Every team is allowed seven runners for the “A” race and an unlimited number of runners for the “B” race.