PHOTOS by Murray Schukar | VIDEOS | RESULTS | EVENT COVERAGE 

 

VERONA, Wisc. – There was a bit of uncertainty about how North Carolina State's Grace Hartman and Angelina Napoleon would perform at Friday’s Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.

 

Hartman was a gametime decision dealing with some plantar fasciitis issues. Napoleon was fresh off competing at the World Athletics Championships in September.

 

At the end of the day, they were the first two women to cross the finish line in their cross country season openers at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course to lead No. 2 NC State to a dominant team victory.

 

Hartman, fifth at last fall’s NCAA Division 1 Cross Country Championships, won the women’s 6-kilometer championship race in 19 minutes, 30 seconds, and Napoleon ran 19:34.6 for second, leading the Wolfpack to a 41-point outing to claim this year’s Nuttycombe title.

 

Hartman is the second NC State athlete to win a Nuttycombe Individual title, joining Katelyn Tuohy in 2022, which is the same year NC State won their only team title at the nation’s premiere in-season meet.

 

“I was super proud,” NC State head coach Laurie Henes said. “Grace hasn’t raced for a while, I think she was a little nervous and she did a great job ratcheting down the pace. Ang did an amazing job translating what she did on the track to cross country, so fantastic.”

 

NC State put all five scorers in the top 20. Hartman and Napoleon secured the first three points, then Bethany Michalak finished ninth in 19:50.7, Hannah Gapes finished 11th in 19:57.4 and Sadie Engelhardt finished 18th in 20:11.8 to round up the score. The top-five spread was bit over 41 seconds.

 

“I think this was a super exciting race to kind of jump into,” Hartman said. “Definitely didn’t know what was going to happen, or even if I was going to race, but every opportunity I have to show up for these women is such a blessing. Nuttycombe is just so exciting, we had a great result today.”

 

Two weeks ago at the Lakefront Invitational in Chicago, NC State proved their depth was there despite the absence of Hartman and Napoleon in a 25-point over Northwestern. NC State had five in the top 12, led by Gapes getting the individual win.

 

On Friday, with the addition of Hartman and Napoleon at Nuttycombe, this year’s group looks the part of national championship team after beating 18 other ranked teams pretty handily.

 

“This is huge if we can come out here and win and race well, but I think ultimately it’s just about gaining that forward momentum,” Napoleon said. “Forward momentum in to ACC’s, forward momentum into regionals and obviously momentum into NCAA’s…We’re out here, we’re fit and we’re here to show off. We showed up today and got our job done.”

 

No. 7 Notre Dame jumped out to early lead on NC State through 2k, 73-112, but NC State flipped the scoring at 4k to 43-124, holding firm control of the team race till the end. The Irish, led by Mary Bonner Dalton (19:40.3, fourth) and Amaya Aramini (19:50, eighth), finished second with 125 points.

 

Washington State freshman Rosemary Longisa, the Gans Creek Classic champion, finished third in 19:39.2.

 

Another freshman, Mercyline Kirwa, finished fifth in 19:44.8, leading No. 16 Iowa State to finish third with 176 points.

 

West Virginia’s Joy Naukot led the No. 9 Mountaineers to a fourth-place team finish with 190 points, running 19:56.1 for 10th. No. 18 Northwestern rounded out the top five with 225 points, led by Ava Criniti in 23rd in 20:21.1.

 

Vera Sjoberg made her North Carolina debut after transferring from Boston University, finishing sixth in 19:45.5. Sjoberg ran at the World Championships for Sweden.

 

Stanford’s Sophia Kennedy ran 19:48.8 to finish in seventh.