Gonzaga & Washington State head to Springfield for Bill Dellinger Invitational Thursday...
Action gets underway at 6 pm with the men's 8k, followed 40 minutes later by the women's 6k, with media partner RunnerSpace providing live streaming coverage of the meet.
The Zags and the Cougars will face the number 7 Oregon Ducks and the number 19 ranked Portland Pilots on the men's side.
The women's race features five nationally ranked teams, including number 4 Arkansas, number 17 Boise State, number 23 Oregon State, number 24 Oregon, and number 25 Colorado State in what is the first major test for both Gonzaga and Washington State against national caliber competition.
The Gonzaga men's squad will have the services of US Olympic Trials 10000 meter competitor James Mwaura (Paul Merca photo), who was held out of the Cougar Classic two weeks ago, after an extended summer racing foray that included both the NCAA track & field championships and the Trials.
"James has now put himself in a rare bunch of guys," Gonzaga mens head coach Pat Tyson said. "I mean, I think he's definitely one of the top cross country runners if he has a good day ... he may be the best if he has a great day."
Even with Mwaura not running, the Zags didn't miss him at the Cougar Classic two weeks ago, as they won the men's team title with a perfect 15 score, while the host Cougars were third, while sitting several key contributors out of the race.
Washington State was led by freshman Leif Swanson's tenth place finish at the Cougar Classic over an 8k course, as he ran 24:35.
Gonzaga's NCAA qualifier Kristen Garcia, who won the Cougar Classic 6k race in 20:44, will again face the Cougar duo of Neema Kimtai and Caroline Jerotich, who went 2-3 in 20:58 and 21:00 two weeks ago in Colfax.
Arkansas, the defending SEC champs, is on paper, a heavy favorite to win the women's team title at Dellinger, led by All-American Krissy Gear, who was 21st at the NCAA cross country championships in March.
Washington State's meet preview is available here, while Gonzaga's preview is available here.
USTFCCCA COACHES POLL FOR WEEK 2 HAS HUSKY WOMEN MOVING UP, WHILE FALCON WOMEN DROP OUT OF D2 POLL...
The University of Washington women's cross country team, which was idle since racing against Seattle University on September 3rd, moved up two spots to number 9 in the USTFCCCA D1 poll released on Tuesday.
BYU and NC State remain the nation's co-number 1 teams, followed in order by New Mexico, Arkansas & Alabama.
Other Pac-12 schools in the national top 30 include number 7 Stanford, number 8 Colorado, number 23 Oregon State, and number 24 Oregon.
On the men's side, Washington remains at number 13, while Gonzaga moved up two spots to number 25.
Defending champs Northern Arizona, Notre Dame, BYU/Stanford at 3, and Oklahoma State are the nation's top five teams.
Number 7 Oregon, and number 8 Colorado are the other Pac-12 schools in the national top 30, while number 19 Portland is the only other West Coast Conference school in the top 30 besides BYU and Gonzaga.
The Division I poll is available here.
In Division II, the voters didn't take took kindly to Seattle Pacific's performance at last week's Pacific Lutheran Open meet, as they dropped out of the national top 30.
The top five women's teams in Division II are Grand Valley State, Colorado School of Mines, Adams State. Augustana (South Dakota), and Lee (Tennessee), with Simon Fraser the lone GNAC school in the national top 30 at 11.
Simon Fraser at number 24 is the lone men's team from the GNAC in the national top 30. The nation's top five men's teams are in order: Colorado School of Mines and Grand Valley State at number 1, followed by Adams State, Chico State, and Colorado Christian.
The Division II poll is available here.
NOTE: The USTFCCCA and the sports information offices of Gonzaga and Washington State contributed to this report.
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