LOGAN, Utah – Utah State's men's and women's cross country teams continue their respective seasons on Friday, Oct. 13, at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin.
 
"This is a huge meet for us," Utah State head cross country coach Artie Gulden said. "Both teams have the goal to qualify for the NCAA Championships and this meet will be a huge determining factor in that. I believe the teams are prepared and, if they are able to execute the race plan well, I expect we will do very well."
 
The Women's 6K A Race will get underway at 10 a.m. (MT), on the Zimmer Championship Course, while the Men's 8K A Race will begin at 10:40 a.m.
 
The Aggie women will face 34 squads, including seven top-10 teams in No. 1 North Carolina State, No. 2 Northern Arizona, No. 4 Notre Dame, No. 5 Stanford, No. 8 Washington, No. 9 Florida and No. 10 Colorado.
 
On the men's side, Utah State will be taking on 36 teams from across the country, including eight top-10 teams in No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 BYU, No. 4 Wisconsin, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 6 Syracuse, No. 7 Villanova, No. 8 Air Force and No. 9 Notre Dame.
 
Mountain West-foes Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State and New Mexico will compete in both races.
 
Scheduled to race for the Aggies on the women's side are grad seniors Abby Jensen and Bailey Brinkerhoff-Todd, senior Sammi Lee, juniors Mimi Miyazawa and Emma Thornley, sophomores Malia Lowe, Morgan Nygren and Sarah Ellis, and freshmen Brie Smith, Megumi Ludlow, Shelby Jensen, Sara Abbott and Natalie Swain.
 
Lowe, the reigning Mountain West Women's Athlete of the Week, led Utah State to the team title last week at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial Invitational as she placed second overall with a 5K time of 18:23.68.
 
"We did super good collectively as a team and that just fires up and carries on the good momentum for Wisconsin," Lowe said.
 
On the men's side, grad seniors Spencer Nelson, Camren Todd and Bridger Altice, seniors Max Wehrli and Yonas Mogos, juniors Caleb Armstrong, Brennan Benson, Eric Nelson and Wyatt Evans, and sophomores LJ Floyd, Grady Mylander, Eli Gregory and Logan Garnica are scheduled to race for Utah State.
 
In the Aggies' last outing, Utah State swept the team titles on their home course at the Steve T. Reeder Memorial Invitational.
 
For the Aggie women, seven USU runners placed in the top 10 with Lowe taking second place with a time of 18:23.68. Utah State scored 20 points, besting second-place College of Southern Idaho by 33 points.
 
On the men's side, Nelson finished fifth with a time of 21:17.45 to lead the way for a USU team title. The Aggies totaled 26 points in their team victory, besting second-place Weber State by 16 points.
 
Utah State was able to rest some of their top runners last week while still winning both team titles.
 
"It just shows that we have a lot of depth and a lot of strength on our team that'll help us in the championship phase of the season," Nelson said.
 
For more information on the Utah State track & field/cross country programs, follow the Aggies on Twitter at @USUTF_XC, on Facebook at USUTrack and on Instagram at USUTF_XC.
 
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