NUTTYCOMBE WISCONSIN INVITATIONAL PREVIEW
Date: September 27
Time: Women's A Race - 12:20, Men's A Race - 1:00pm
Location: University of Wisconsin, Reddan Soccer Park - Verona, Wisconsin
Teams Competing: Listed Above
Live Results:
https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=7442Your favorite distance runners are back in action in the CHEESE state of Wisconsin! One thing cheese and your Aggie cross country teams have in common are depth and variety! Before we get into the breakdown, my top 5 cheeses are: 1. Mozzarella, 2. Parmigiano Reggiano, 3. Cheddar, 4. Pecorino Romano, 5. Feta… Okay back to cross country!!! Our Aggies travel up to Wisconsin to race on one of the top courses across the country at the Thomas Zimmer Champion Cross Country Course! The women will run a 6k and the men a 8k! This is one of the premier meets throughout the cross country season and the competition will be as such!
Now is the time of year where the top dogs make their season debuts, and they've let me down after I get my hopes up before, but scheduled to make their Aggie cross country debut is Victor Kibiego! Also listed to run for the Aggies is Cooper Cawthra, Ondrej Gajdos, Maddie Livingston, and Shewaye Johnson, all who didn't run last meet! If everyone runs, this will be our best outlook into how the season will go!! I think this a is a perfect meet to compete in and will definitely be the most competitive meet we see all year! There are many national qualifying teams such as the host Wisconsin, BYU, Iowa State, Colorado, Washington, Montana State, Virginia, Tennessee, Portland, the Oregon girls, and so many others!!
Obviously this meet will be highly competitive, but this is the test where we find a lot about our team! Will we go out fast with everyone, will we run as a pack, can someone elevate their game with better competition, will others fade back because of the more honest pace, or will they fall behind the crowded field! It's too early in the year for race tactics, but it'll be nice to see where we stack together! There is no competition from the south central region, and the only sec foe will be Tennessee on the men's side.
As for our runners, I'm excited to see how Victor Kibiego looks and to see if he's healthy! He did injure himself during track season, so let's see how he races Friday! I'd bet he's a game time decision! Glad we'll see others making their season debut as well! I'd love to see where Maddie Livingston's fitness level is at and you have to hope she's healthy. The same thing goes for Shewaye Johnson, Cooper Cawthra and Ondrej Gajdos! Gajdos looks to make his cross country debut for the maroon and white!
In a meet like this it's easy to fall behind and fall behind quickly, so a good start is always a great idea! If Kibiego is healthy, I expect him to run with the lead pack which will include some of the nations top talent! Cawthra and Chung will race well and have experience in races like this! I'm excited to see what our talented underclassmen will do in an environment like this! We saw many Pr's last week and excellent times from guys like Zack Munger, Jack Johnston, Luca Santorum, Carter Gordy, and Gilbert Rono! Now it's time to see how they run in a more crowded and competitive environment! All of our guys are scheduled to run!!!!!
The women's race to me has a lot more questions! The first being Maddie Livingston's health! In a race like this you'd count on her to lead the way, but her health is what's most important! Can San Juanita run with elite national talent! We know she's talented and strong and she has raced in meets with a lot of runners, but not at this level! I think she elevates her game to another level in a race like this! It'll also be her first 6k, so for Leal and the other freshman how will the 6k jump be! Can Megan Roberts and Maddie Peters keep up their elite running! Kennady Fontenot and Emma Little are both experienced runners so this stage won't be too much for them, so expect them to fare well! Shewaye Johnson is going to run her first race of the season so I'm interested to see where she's at! I'm really curious to see the order of finishes for our girls!! The girls need to get out fast though, even though I always say that and even when they take it out calmly they still run well lol! I just like to freak out over the first checkpoint lol!
It'll be a fun trip for our runners in Wisconsin! Great competition, great experience, and a great team bonding weekend before we have THREE STRAIGHT HOME MEETS! So let's hope we stay healthy and take a lot from this meet that we can learn from and build on! I'm excited to see where we stand against some of the top teams across the nation! This is a perfect meet for us and I think we will look back and be thankful we went through this meet!!! Hope our team enjoys Wisconsin and saves the cheese for post race! Gig'em Aggies!