James Mwaura finishes 15th at Nuttycombe Invitational Friday...

MADISON, Wisconsin—Gonzaga’s James Mwaura (left/photo by Paul Merca) finished 15th at the Nuttycombe Invitational Friday hosted by the University of Wisconsin.

The sophomore from Tacoma’s Lincoln HS ran 23:57 over the 8k Thomas Zimmer Championship Course, as Iowa State’s Edwin Kurgat took the win in 23:30. For Mwaura, that was a 38 second improvement over what he ran on this course last year.

Five places behind Mwaura was Washington State’s Amir Ado, who ran 23:59.

Behind Mwaura for the Zags were Peter Hogan in 61st in 24:23, Cullen McEachern in 110th (24:41), Yacine Guermala in 116th (24:44), and Riley Moore in 133rd (24:52).

Scoring for the Cougs were Reid Muller in 114th (24:43), Zach Stallings in 186th (25:19), Matthew Watkins in 196th (25:27), and Justin Janke in 216th (26:03).

Gonzaga finished 16th in the 33 team field with a final team score of 435, while Washington State was 30th with 717 points.

The Zags entered the race unranked in the latest USTFCCCA poll, and the field included 19 ranked programs. GU finished ahead of 10 teams that appeared in the latest rankings, including No. 12 Syracuse and No. 16 Virginia.

Defending national champion Northern Arizona took the win with 59 points, with Stanford second at 133, and Tulsa third at 175.

In the women’s 6k race, the Cougars finished 34th in the 36 team field with 847 points, as Arkansas, the nation’s number one team, won with 62 points, followed by Stanford with 98, and North Carolina State at 203.

Alicia Monson of the host Badgers won the race in 19:40.

Leading the way for WSU on the day was sophomore Zorana Grujic, placing 110th overall with a time of 21:22.

Erin Mullins followed Grujic with a 131st place finish with a time of 21:31, and Josie Brown shortly followed in 156th place with a time of 21:43. Kaili Keefe turned in a time of 22:29 overall to finish 222nd, and following closely behind was Melissa Hruska in 228th place at 22:44.

Complete results of the Nuttycombe Invitational are available here.

NOTE:  The sports information offices of the University of Wisconsin, Gonzaga University, and Washington State University contributed to this report.