Northern Arizona men, New Mexico women rule day at Nuttycombe Invite

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Northern Arizona's men and New Mexico's women did masterful jobs of linking five scorers together Friday at the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational. 

The No. 2 Lumberjacks went 3-4-5 behind a spectacular finish up front where Syracuse's Justyn Knight held off Stanford's Grant Fisher. 

The NAU trio of Andy Trouard, Tyler Day and Matthew Baxter led the team to a score of 50 points, easily outpacing second-place Portland (123), third-place Syracuse (151) and fourth-place Stanford (155). Furman was fifth at 157.

Knight covered the 8-kilometer Thomas Zimmer Cross Country Course in 23 minutes, 38.9 seconds and beat Fisher, the NCAA 5,000-meter champion, by two-tenths of a second.

In the women's race, Ednah Kurgat of New Mexico ran 19:23.2 on the 6-kilometer layout and won by 16 seconds. She led the No. 4 Lobos to a decisive team victory with 87 points. Alice Wright (fourth), Charlotte Prouse (seventh) and Weini Kelati (15th) powered the team to victory.

San Francisco, led by NCAA 10,000-meter champion Charlotte Taylor (third place) finished second with 126 points. North Carolina State was third with 169 points.