No. 12 Cougars face test at Wisconsin Adidas Invitational

PROVO, Utah – No. 12 BYU men’s cross country heads to the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational Friday in Madison to take on some of the nation’s top teams.

“This is another opportunity for us to go and race some good teams,” BYU head coach Ed Eyestone said. “Beating some top teams from other regions would help us to further qualify for nationals.”

Included in the 38-team field are seven teams ranked higher than BYU, including No. 3 Northern Arizona, who won the Wisconsin Adidas Invitational last year and finished second at nationals. West Coast Conference foe No. 5 Portland, who was picked to finish first in the WCC this year, is also in the field.

No. 11 Michigan, who also competes in the meet this weekend, is the only team to defeat the Cougars this season, having won the Notre Dame Invitational two weeks ago.

The Cougars come into the meet with strong recent performances by senior Spencer Gardner and junior Jonathan Nelson. Gardner won the BYU Autumn Classic and has finished in BYU’s top three in all three of the Cougars’ meets this season. Nelson finished first among BYU runners in the Utah Open and Notre Dame Invitational.

The men’s 8-kilometer race at Thomas Zimmer Championship Course starts Friday at 11:45 a.m. CDT.