MADISON, Wis. – It was a team performance all around for the 23rd-ranked Wisconsin women's cross country team at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational Presented by Under Armour as the Badgers finished 16th in a field that featured 22 ranked teams and six of the top-10 teams in the country Friday morning in Madison. 

The Badgers scored 421 points and finished ahead of six other ranked teams at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in their third meet of the season. 

Second-ranked Northern Arizona won the team title, edging No. 1 NC State with 52 points. NC State finished second with 95 points, while 11th-ranked Georgetown took third with 208 points. Wisconsin finished ahead of several teams ranked above them in the national poll, including No. 14 Providence.  

Florida redshirt Junior Parker Valby won the individual title in 19 minutes, 17.2 seconds, just over 12 seconds ahead of last year's champion, Katelyn Tuohy, who finished second. It also was a course record for Valby. 

Junior Leane Willemse finished first for UW at the meet, covering the 6K course in 20 minutes, 36.0 seconds for 34th place. Another Badger to lead the way, finishing second for UW, was graduate student Alexa Westley, who placed 69th overall and ran the course in 20:53.3. 

Graduate student Danielle Orie covered the course in 20:59.4, followed by redshirt junior Emma Watcke, who completed the course in 21:05.9, and Vivian Hacker, who finished in 21:20.3. 

Kylie Finger leads UW to eighth place in the B Race 

Wisconsin finished eighth in the B race with two Badgers securing top-30 spots. Junior Kylie Finger took first among the Badgers, taking an 11th-place finish in 21:53.1. Mya Bunke quickly followed Finger with her 14th-place finish in 21:56.3. 

Straight from the Course: 
Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mick Byrne
On the meet:
"On the women's side, we got out, we got out hard and you know, for some of our athletes running at this level and the a number of athletes in this championships, they did a good job. We lost in places over the last, last K and a half. We have to work on that," said Byrne. "You know, we've always said,  let's not play Monday morning and overanalyze, you know, a race like this, it's important that we stay focused on the last part of the Big Tens or two weeks away and we got regionals, and we got nationals."

Leane Willemse 
On her finish:
"I think the race went really well. Obviously, the goal was to go out and be in the top 150. Obviously, with the wind and the weather, I was just trying to tuck in as much as possible. Honestly, during the race, it was hard to gauge where you were at, but personally, I think I did really well. As a team, we had a fantastic huge jump from last year, and we will take this momentum moving forward into the postseason with Big Tens coming up, which was a big confidence boost."

Up Next:
The Badgers open postseason racing in two weeks as they are set to host the 2023 Big Ten Cross Country Championships on Friday, Oct. 27, in Madison.