Buffaloes Split Weekend

BOULDER — The University of Colorado cross country program will send a pair of teams to the Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc., Friday morning, while another team will head to the Highlander Invitational in Riverside, Calif., Saturday.

The eighth-ranked men's squad will send 19 men to the Nuttycombe to face off against some of the nation's top teams, while the seventh-ranked women's team will send 13 women. CU will send seven men and seven women to Riverside to preview the Pac-12 Championships course.

For the men, Austin Vancil will join the squad after sitting out the Cowboy Jamboree. He will be an important addition to go along with some of the top runners like Andrew Kent, Charlie Sweeney, Brendan Fraser and Lukas Haug. James Overberg, who was third for the Buffs at the Jamboree will also be competing and look to get into the scoring mix.

The trio of Bailey Hertenstein, Emily Covert and Ella Baran all finished in the top-20 at the Cowboy Jamboree and will look to push the pace for Colorado. Kaitlyn Barthell and Gabrielle Orie rounded out the scoring for Colorado in September and are looking strong for the final meet before the conference championships. CU will also hope to have Hannah Miniutti up with the pack after struggling to come back from injury earlier in the season.

Nuttycombe will feature a plethora of strong teams, including 22 ranked teams on the men's side and 23 on the women's. Eight of the nation's top men's teams will be in competition except No. 4 Oklahoma State and No. 7 Wake Forest, while the women have all of the top-10 except No.3 Oklahoma State and No.6 Alabama.

The squad heading to California consists of all freshmen and sophomores in eligibility that will bring back important information on the course. Carley Bennett is one of the leads for the women along with Anna Shults and Alisa Meraz-Fishbein, while the men will have Ben Greene, Caleb Niednagel and others ready to set the pace up front.

Friday's Nuttycombe will be streamed on Runnerspace with live results found here.

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Players Mentioned

Ella Baran

Kaitlyn Barthell

Carley Bennett

Emily Covert

Brendan Fraser

Ben Greene

Lukas Haug

Bailey Hertenstein

Andrew Kent

Alisa Meraz-Fishbein

Hannah Miniutti

Caleb Niednagel

James Overberg

Anna Shults

Charlie Sweeney

Austin Vancil