The Bulldogs travel to Wisconsin Friday as part of the one of the nation's deepest fields at a meet this season, joining a host of ranked teams for the 2021 Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.

The event will take place at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course in Verona, Wis. The Bulldogs last ran on this course at the 2019 NCAA Great Lakes Regional.

The women's "A" 6k race will begin at 12:20 p.m. (Central) and the men's "A" 8k race starts at 1 p.m. (Central)

Butler's men are ranked No. 16 nationally in this week's USTFCCCA poll. Friday's field includes a number of nationally-ranked squads alongside the Bulldogs in No. 3 Stanford, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 6 Iowa State, No. 9 Oregon, No. 10 Furman, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 12 Tulsa, No. 13 Washington, No. 14 Iona, No. 15 Michigan, No. 19 Gonzaga, No. 21 Southern Utah, No. 26 Portland, No. 27 Syracuse, No. 29 Utah State, No. 30 Air Force, and No. 30 Purdue.

Coach Matt Roe will utilize a line-up of Barry Keane, Simon Bedard, Pierre-Louis Detourbe, Clark Otte, Evan Byrne, Jack McMahon, James Sweeney, and Ryan Adkins. Nate Lantz and Nick Doud will run in the open men's race.

A majority of that group helped the Bulldogs to a third-place finish at the prestigious Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational Oct. 1 in the team's most recent competition. Keane finished tenth, navigating the course in 23:41.7.

The women's field is also loaded with the nation's top three ranked teams, No. 1 North Carolina State, No. 2 BYU and No. 3 New Mexico, highlighting the group. Additional nationally-ranked teams include No. 6 Minnesota, No. 7 Washington, No. 9 Stanford, No. 13 Oklahoma State, No. 17 Michigan State, No. 18 Portland, No. 19 Providence, No. 20 Villanova, No. 21 Colorado State, No. 21 Indiana, No. 22 Iowa State, No. 23 Notre Dame, No. 25 Wisconsin, No. 26 Connecticut, No. 28 Furman, and No. 30 Oregon State.

Angelina Ellis, Mia Beckham, Kami Hankins, Quinn Shanahan, Maddie McLain, Emily Royston, Corinna Pena, and Katherine Olsen comprise the Butler eight for this event.

The women finished 11^th at the Piane Invitational, coming in ahead of Illinois, Notre Dame and Indiana, which were each nationally-ranked at the time. The Bulldogs were led by Ellis in a time of 16:50.1. She placed 30^th. Beckham was just behind, crossing the line in a time of 16:57.8 to finish 44^th overall.

The meet will be streamed live by RunnerSpace.

Additional information on the 2021 Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational can be found here: https://uwbadgers.com/sports/2019/5/7/nuttycombe-wisconsin-invitational.aspx?id=1599