The Nuttycombe Invitational is not a meet for the faint of heart. Aside from the obvious difficulties that come with the last race of the regular season (especially one that takes place in Wisconsin’s October weather), the Nuttycombe Invitational also boasts one of the most challenging fields of the season.
This year was no different, and in fact, might have been one of the toughest lineups in the invitational’s history. The entirety of the top 16 on the final leaderboard, and 17 of the top 20 teams
at Friday’s meet can be found in the USTFCCCA NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country National Coaches’ Poll. (And by the way, the three top 20 finishers who aren’t currently ranked — Duke, North Carolina and California Baptist — are all receiving votes in the poll).
So how would No. 18 Northwestern fare against such stiff competition? While the Wildcats hadn’t yet finished below second in any meet this season, they also hadn’t ran in any meet with this many ranked teams. The second-place finish at the Loyola Lakefront Invitational, on October 3, saw Northwestern topple six ranked teams, but the Nuttycombe Invitational seemed to be a different beast entirely.
Luckily, the ‘Cats have that dawg in them, and proved they belonged among the nation’s best with a fifth place finish. It’s the best finish the program has ever attained at the Nuttycombe Invitational, and it took some guts and late-race heroics. Northwestern’s average time of 20:35 was just a second ahead of both No. 22 Georgetown and No. 14 Penn State, and the same exact time as No. 11 Stanford. But in terms of points, the Wildcats were 18 clear of Georgetown, 22 clear of Penn State, and 25 clear of Stanford.
The Wildcats’ success started with a familiar face. Ava Criniti, the redshirt sophomore who made All-Midwest a season ago, was the top ‘Cat for the second meet this season, coming within half a second of breaking her 6k PR. While the personal best wasn’t meant to be, Criniti still had the team best, with a scorching finish of 20.21.1. That placed her 23rd overall at the meet, her fourth consecutive top-25 finish (keep in mind, Northwestern has participated in four meets this year).
But the sensational sophomore wasn’t the only Wildcat to show up in the clutch. Holly Smith earned 39th place with a great late kick, finishing the 6K in 20:31.2. Smith arguably had the toughest finish of any runner for Northwestern, as places 40, 41 and 42 all finished within three tenths of a second of the graduate student. Smith may have been aided by her familiarity with the course, as she also ran the Nuttycombe Invitational last season. However, her improvement is immediately obvious — her time this season is over 40 seconds faster than her time in Madison from the 2024 campaign.
Jackie Holman was the third Wildcat runner to place within the top 50, with a time of 20:35.4 earning her 49th place. The junior didn’t run at last year’s Nuttycombe Invitational, but a 20:12.75 on the lakefront a few weeks prior (a new personal best) made it impossible to keep her off the team that went to Madison. Ava Earl was close behind her with a run of 20:42.6, which was good enough for 54th. Anna Hightower closed out the Northwestern top five with a strong clip of 20:47.7 and a 60th-place result. Skye Ellis, Maddy Whitman, and Cary Drake also participated, and all three runners finished inside the top 150, though their placements did not contribute to the Wildcat tally.
The only teams with better scores than Northwestern on Friday were No. 2 North Carolina State, No. 7 Notre Dame, No. 16 Iowa State and No. 9 West Virginia. When the dust settled, the Wildcats had outran 13 ranked teams, including six in the top 15. The next USTFCCCA poll will be released on Tuesday, October 21, and it’s a safe bet that Northwestern will be leapfrogging quite a few teams thanks to their performance in Madison.
But even with the historic performance, and the undeniable proof that the Wildcats belong with the nation’s best, the team has no time to rest on its laurels. Postseason running is up next, and the Big Ten Conference Championships will be even spookier than usual, given that they take place on Halloween. Luckily for Northwestern, no Big Ten team performed better in Madison — not Penn State, not No. 17 Washington, not No. 29 Wisconsin (the hosts of Nuttycombe), and not even No. 24 Michigan State (which hosts the Conference Championships in a few weeks). The Wildcats have already proven they can run with — and ahead of — each of those teams. Now they get a chance to prove it again — this time with a conference title up for grabs.
