Update on Gonzaga runners hit by car near campus...

As a follow up to our post earlier Tuesday, Gonzaga cross country and track coach Pat Tyson reached out to paulmerca.blogspot.com and gave an update on the two runners who were injured after being hit by a vehicle while crossing the street Saturday night (February 5th) near campus.

Lara Tuthill (left/photo courtesy Gonzaga University) and Dana Walters were crossing the street at North Hamilton Street & East Sharp Avenue near the Gonzaga campus, when the two Zag runners were hit by a car driven by Sarah Burford.

According to a voice mail message left by Tyson, "Tuthill is still in the ICU and will be there for a few more days. She's got some swelling on the brain, so they've got to be cautious. She'll probably be pulled out of school and go home to Boise to recover during the spring."

Tuthill, a freshman from Bishop Kelly HS in Boise, which was the same high school attended by US Olympian Nick Symmonds, entered Gonzaga with high school personal bests of 2:24.80 in the 800, 5:11.81 in the 1600, and 11:14.34 in the 3200.

She was the sixth runner for the Zags at the West Coast Conference cross country championship meet, where she finished 46th.

Walters, out of San Diego, where he attended La Costa Canyon HS, was released from the hospital, and in fact, visited his Gonzaga teammates at practice.

Walters ran one race this past cross country season for Gonzaga, at the Inland Northwest Cross Country Challenge at Eastern Washington University, where he was 68th.

According to the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Burford, 33, was released on her own recognizance after appearing in Spokane County Superior Court on two counts of vehicular assault.

Burford registered a blood-alcohol level of .093 on a portable Breathalyzer test administered after the crash.

You can read the newspaper's report here.