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VERONA, Wisconsin – As far as first impressions go, the Washington women have made their mark in the Big Ten conference.
The fifth-ranked Huskies stormed into Wisconsin on Friday and delivered a statement victory at the 15th running of the Nuttcombe Wisconsin Invitational Presented by Under Armour, scoring 110 points while representing their new conference for the first time in Big Ten country.
Washington held off former Pac-12 foe No. 14 Utah, now with the Big 12, by 29 points to secure the program’s first Nuttycombe team title since 2006 and third overall.
“I was pleased with the attitude and effort,” Washington head coach Maurica Powell said.
“We went up to altitude for a couple of weeks, which I’ve not typically done, and we came back and have been training through the whole month of September…The idea was that this was going to be hard, you aren’t going to be fresh and you’re just going to have to sort of be tough and dig it out. And they did that today, which was fantastic.”
Washington, who won the final Pac-12 cross country title last fall at Chambers Bay in Tacoma, Wash., put five women in the top 35, with Penn transfer Maeve Stiles leading the way for the Huskies in eighth individually in 20:17.9 on the 6-kilometer race.
“This was like a rust-buster, seeing how we race,” Stiles said. “Our coaches wanted to see how we race and got it done. I think there’s just proof that we have a lot of potential, but by no means are we settling with this. We’re just gonna keep going and getting better and better.”
Julia David-Smith, second for the Huskies, passed seven other women over the final 2 kilometers to earn 12th overall in 20:24.8, finishing 38 placings higher than last year’s Nuttycombe run when she was 50th.
Amina Maatoug, All-American transfer from Duke, made her Washington debut, earning 27th in 20:39.4.
Chloe Foerster and India Weir made up a ton of ground in the final kilometer to lower the Huskies’ score from 120 to 110 in the end, with Foerster moving up 10 spots to finish 29th in 20:40.5 and Weir moving up seven spots to place 34th in 20:47.2.
“Just a lot of good steps forward,” Powell said. “I thought how they composed themselves and competed despite probably feeling fatigued was impressive.”
Erin Vringer crossed the line first for second-place Utah, giving the Utes a sixth-place individual finish with her running 20:14.2.
No. 15 Georgetown finished third with 145 points, with Melissa Riggins finishing seventh in 20:16.1.
No. 10 Providence held off No. 19 Wisconsin by two points for fourth place with 180 points. Kimberley May, last year’s NCAA outdoor runner-up in the 1,500, was the top Friar in fifth in 20:12.4.
Villanova’s Sadie Sigfstead ran a patient race and used the final kilometer to overtake Gonzaga’s Rosina Machu in the end to win the individual title in 19:55.7.
“Such a special moment,” Sigfstead said. “Cross country is like no else. It’s not like track. When you got home straightaways like that, it’s so special. It just gave me a lot of confidence that I can do this.”
Penn State’s Florence Caron was the next across the line behind Sigfstead, finishing second in 20:03.2, with Gonzaga’s Machu following in third in 20:06.2.
Columbia’s Phoebe Anderson maintained her fourth-place position throughout the entire race, running 20:11.4.
Furman’s Carly Wilkes finished ninth after moving up three spots in the latter half of the race, running 20:18.4, and North Carolina’s Brynn Brown managed 10th in 20:23.
Boston College’s Molly Fitzpatrick out kicked North Carolina’s Ava Dobson to capture the women’s B title, running 21:15.2 for the win.
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