WEEKEND PREVIEW: Zags at Dellinger, CWU Invite, and pro circuit winding down...

Cross country action resumes late Friday afternoon as the Gonzaga Bulldogs travel to Eugene to compete in the Bill Dellinger Invitational at Pre’s Trails at Alton Baker Park.

The Zags are coming off a solid showing on September 1st at the Clash of the Inland Empire meet in Colfax, where they placed five men in the top ten, while Julie Henling led the women’s squad with her fifth place finish.

In addition to host Oregon, Portland, and Portland State are entered in the Dellinger Invitational, with the women running 6k and the men 8k.  Defending NCAA champion Edward Cheserek of the Ducks is expected to run.

The Bulldogs are the only Washington D1 school competing this weekend, as Washington, SeattleU, Eastern Washington and Washington State will all race at the Sundodger Invitational in Seattle next weekend at Lincoln Park.

Gonzaga’s pre-meet release is available here.

Central Washington hosts the CWU Invitational Saturday at the Apple Ridge Run Cross Country Facility with the women's 4k at 11am, and the men's 6k 40 minutes later.  Western Washington will have a group of athletes running in the meet as well, as fellow GNAC schools Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin’s will take the weekend off after competing last week.

Speaking of Seattle Pacific, the Falcons’ Anna Patti (above/photo courtesy GNAC) was named the GNAC runner of the week for last week’s performances at the Alaska Invitational, in which the senior from Renton won the 6k race last Thursday in 22:12, then came back two days later to win the 5k race in 18:35.

The GNAC weekly release is available here.

On the track, the international season slowly begins to wind down. as Katie Mackey of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts will compete for Team USA at Sunday’s DecaNations meet in Paris, France.

In New York, Washington State alum Bernard Lagat and Garrett Heath of the Brooks Beasts will run down Fifth Avenue on Sunday in the New York Road Runners Fifth Avenue Mile.

On Wednesday September 9th, Heath finished second to David Torrence in the HokaOneOne Long Island Mile at St. Anthony’s HS in Huntington, New York, running 3:54.51, to Torrence’s 3:53.91.  Riley Masters of the Beasts was fifth in 3:59.64.

NOTE:  The sports information offices of Gonzaga and Central Washington, along with the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and the New York Road Runners contributed to this report.