Bulldog men match program best finish as they take second at WCC Championships...

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nevada--In its first meet of the 2020-21 season, the Gonzaga men's cross country team managed to place its five scorers inside the top twenty, and knocked off the nation's number eight team en route to a second place finish at the West Coast Conference championship meet at Craig Ranch Regional Park Wednesday morning.

The team was led by the duo of James Mwaura (59) and Yacine Guemali (photo courtesy Gonzaga Athletics), who finished second and fourth, respectively over the 8k course.

Mwaura crossed the line in 23:03, with Guemali five seconds back at 23:08.

Freshman Wil Smith was the third man in at 23:47, good for 11th place, followed by Peter Hogan in 16th at 23:55, and Evan Bates in 19th at 24:14.

Afterwards, Mwaura said. "Our goal was to finish in the top-two, with the idea of getting into nationals. We executed our plan well and achieved our goal. Honestly, I wanted to win, but for my first race in 465 days, I am happy and proud of how I ran."

"We've been frozen since November 2019," Gonzaga director of track & cross country Pat Tyson said. "It's been 15 months of the thrill of going to nationals in 2019 and just being left out, no track season in 2020, CoVID, smoky air season in Spokane, the isolation and having to train differently. People could have given up and quit, but our guys didn't. These guys are self-starters, and it makes a coach proud.

"This was our first meet of the season! All 10 of our guys performed well. The quality of the West Coast Conference is so phenomenal. We have nothing but respect for BYU, and we never underestimate the talent Portland has. I'm so happy for our guys."

Gonzaga's second place finish matched its previous best team finish, set in 2004. 

Brigham Young, the nation's number one team in the latest USTFCCCA coaches poll, won with 25 points, and placing six runners inside the top 10, led by winner Conner Mantz in 22:55.

Less than two weeks ago, Mantz ran the fastest time in the world indoors in the 5000 meters at the UW Invitational, running 13:28.00 to set a new Dempsey Indoor record.

BYU finished with 25 points, Gonzaga had 51, and number 8 Portland totaled 62.

In the women's 6k race, Kristen Garcia led the way for the Zags, finishing 12th in 20:51. Lauren Haas was 18th in 21:28, followed by Ally Legard in 22nd in 21:44.

Liz Hogan in 28th (22:09) and Claire Manley in 29th (22:14) rounded out the Gonzaga scorers.

The BYU women won the team title for the third straight season. Four Cougars placed inside the Top-10 as they scored 28 points. Portland was second with 49, led by Anna Pataki's first-place individual finish. She took the title with a time of 19:56.0. San Francisco was third with 68, followed by the Zags at 98.

For the Zags, this marked the first time since they won the WCC where they scored under 100 points.

Courtesy of the WCC, here's a video recap of the meet.

With various conferences conducting championship meets between now and March 5th, the Bulldogs await the decision of the NCAA committee on whether or not they will get to run as a team in the NCAA championships for the first time in program history on March 15th in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Gonzaga's release is available here.

Results of the West Coast Conference championships are available here.

NOTE: The sports information office of Gonzaga University, the West Coast Conference, and the NCAA contributed to this report.

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