Gonzaga men's cross country team heads to nationals for first time; UW squads, Erin Mullins & Kristen Garcia get spots...

INDIANAPOLIS--The Gonzaga Bulldogs (photo courtesy Gonzaga Athletics), the second place squad at the West Coast Conference championships, will head to Stillwater, Oklahoma to compete in the NCAA Division I cross country championships on Monday March 15th as a team for the first time in program history.

The Zags, currently the nation's number 14 squad, earned a berth, in an unusual 2020-21 season that saw the NCAA eliminate for this season only, the nine regional championship meets that determine the 31 teams going to nationals. Instead, the spots for the national championships were determined by the NCAA Division I track & cross country committee.

Gonzaga was one of the first teams left out of the 2019 championships, but had a strong showing at the WCC championships in North Las Vegas, led by a 2-4 finish by James Mwaura and Yacine Guemali. 

All this was despite the WCCs being the team's only regular meet, after their program was paused before the Oregon XC Invitational on February 5th due to a positive COVID-19 case on the team.

In the WCC championships, Gonzaga finished behind the nation's number one team, Brigham Young, by a 25-51 count.  In the process, the Bulldogs beat then-number 8 Portland, who scored 62 points. 

After the WCCs, Gonzaga director of track & cross country Pat Tyson said, "We've been frozen since November 2019. 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."

While the Zags are going as a team, this will be Mwaura's second appearance at the NCAAs. In 2019, he finished  138th at the national championships in Terre Haute, Indiana.

As expected, both University of Washington cross country teams earned spots into the national championship meet, after finishing third at the Pac-12 title race Friday at Chambers Creek Park in University Place behind Stanford and Colorado in both races.

The Washington women were led at Pac-12s by a first place finish from Haley Herberg, who received the USTFCCCA National Division I athlete of the week award for her efforts.

Erin Mullins of Washington State, who finished 13th at the Pac-12s, received one of the individual berths into the championship meet, as did Kristen Garcia of Gonzaga, who was 12th at the WCC championships.

The 2021 championship will air on ESPNU. The individual and team championships begin at 9:30 am PT. All events are at Oklahoma State's Cross Country Course.

Courtesy of the NCAA, here is the official announcement:

The NCAA release is available here.

UW ALUM JACK ROWE FINISHES NINTH IN 3000 AT EUROPEAN INDOOR CHAMPS...

In Torun, Poland, former Washington Husky All-American Jack Rowe finished ninth in the final of the men's 3000 meters Sunday at the European Athletics Indoor Championships at Arena Torun.

Rowe, who ran for the Huskies in the 2019-20 season as a graduate transfer, finished in a season best 7:53.47, and just short of his personal best fo 7:51.00, set last year at the Husky Classic.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won the race in a personal best time of 7:48.20

Results of day 4 of the European Indoor championships are available here.

NOTE: European Athletics, Gonzaga University and the NCAA contributed to this report.

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