Wil Smith leads Zags to runner-up team finish at WCC, plus a busy Championship Friday...
PORTLAND--Gonzaga's Wil Smith (Paul Merca photo) led the Bulldogs to a second place team finish on a soggy Friday morning at the West Coast Conference cross country championships at Fernhill Park in northeast Portland.
Smith showed no fear in going with the lead pack, which consisted primarily of runners from number 2 ranked Brigham Young.
As the 8-kilometer race progressed, Smith found himself in a battle with BYU's Brandon Garnica, before Garnica pulled away in the closing stages, finishing second in 22:09 to Smith's 22:12.
The Cougars' Casey Clinger took the conference title in a time of 22:00.
Yacine Guermali was the next-highest placing Zag at 15th with a time of 22:43. The Bulldogs finished second behind the Cougars for the second straight year despite an off day from James Mwaura, who took second as an individual last year but finished 17th overall this year with a time of 22:50.
For Mwaura, who was injured early in the campaign, this was his season debut.
Cullen McEachern (18th, 22:51) and Kyle Radosevich (20th, 22:52) rounded out the rest of GU's five scorers.
"The big goal was to get (number 14 ranked) Portland, because we needed a point back after Nuttycombe," said Smith post-race. "Things didn't go perfectly, but it's definitely a step in the right direction — and if we keep putting the pieces together, things can go pretty well for us at Regionals and hopefully Nationals."
BYU won the team title with 18 points, followed by Gonzaga's 69 and Portland's 76 points.
Among notables with Washington ties, Portland's Bradley Peloquin from Gig Harbor was tenth in 22:23, and steeplechase All American Kenneth Rooks of BYU, from College Place, was 12th in 22:33.
In the women's 6k race, Kristen Garcia and Rosina Machu finished sixth and seventh, as the Bulldogs took fourth in the team race, scoring 89 points.
Garcia crossed the finish line in 20:09 to take sixth as an individual — her highest-ever finish at WCCs, with Machu finishing seventh with a time of 20:14. The pair made it two consecutive years that at least two GU women's runners finished in the top 10 at conference championships, with Garcia's finish as the best by a GU women's runner since Claire Manley's 6th overall finish in 2019.
Alicia Anderson (21st, 21:02), Caramia Mestler (30th, 21:20), and Makenna Edwards (34th, 21:42), rounded out the five Gonzaga scorers.
Led by Aubrey Frentheway's victory in 19:48, number 5 BYU successfully defended the WCC title with a low score of 30 points.
San Francisco was second with 65, followed by host Portland in third at 77, then the Bulldogs at 89.
PAC-12 RECAP
In Riverside, California, the Washington men's squad finished third at the Pac-12 cross country championships at the UC Riverside Agricultural Operations Course, hosted by the University of Southern California.
The Dawgs were led by the eighth place finish of NCAA cross country All American Brian Fay, who ran 22:57 over the 8k course.
Following Fay was Isaac Green with an 11th-place finish, a 22-place improvement from a year ago. Luke Houser was 15th in 23:15 for his third-straight top-20 Pac-12 finish.
Sam Affolder was 23rd in 23:39, and Joe Waskom was the fifth Husky in 24th place at 23:40.
Washington State finished sixth with 177 points, led by Brian Barsaiya, who was 33rd in 23:55, and Leif Swanson, who was one place and one second behind.
Kelvin Limo was 36th in 24:03, followed by Kyle Ortega-Gammill in 43rd at 24:27, and Grayson Walcott in 52nd at 25;01.
UW head coach Andy Powell said the Huskies were much improved from two weeks ago. "We figured we'd try to create havoc a little bit and we wanted to make it a hard race, so we sent Sam Ellis out there to make sure it was honest. They were flying through 3k. I think we knew Stanford was number one, but we thought we could disrupt some other teams. We were in front of Colorado for a bit, so to be close to a really good Colorado team and to beat Oregon was a really good showing from everybody."
Charles Hicks of Stanford took the individual title in a time of 22:31, to lead the number 1 ranked Cardinal to the team title, with a low of 22 points. Number 10 Colorado was second with 61, then the number 20 Huskies rounded the top 3 with 81, ahead of number 15 Oregon's 94 points.
The number 19 ranked Husky women had a better outing than their race two weeks ago at the Nuttycombe Invitational, finishing fifth with 94 points in a close three way battle between number 12 Oregon (86), and number 9 Stanford (93).
The Dawgs had a breakthrough performance by Andrea Markezich (Paul Merca photo) , who finished eighth in 19:38. She was followed by Sophie O'Sullivan in 13th, as the Australian international ran 19:42, just behind former Seattle Pacific All-American Kaylee Mitchell of Oregon State, who had the same time.
In her season debut, 2020 Pac-12 cross country champ Haley Herberg was 21st in 19:57, followed by Ella Borsheim in 25th at 20:01, and Madison Heisterman in 27th at 20:03.
"Andrea is super fit and it was yet to translate into a race but today we saw her believe in herself and translate ability into confidence," said UW director of track & field/cross country Maurica Powell. "Sophie O'Sullivan ran really confidently. Ella Borsheim ran confidently. Haley opened up, and she's just been training and hasn't really sharpened but she came out to grind and help our team, and she ran with confidence. We're starting to put pieces together that will put us right in the mix in two weeks. The two biggest races are coming and we're trending in the right direction."
Washington State finished seventh with 160 points, led by Neema Kimtai's tenth place finish in 19:39.
Alaina Stone Boggs was 18th in 19:48, followed by Caroline Jerotich in 22nd at 19:58. Pietra Da Silva was 59th in 20:52, and Samantha Boyle was WSU's final scorer in 73rd at 21:14.
Number 11 Colorado defeated number 10 Utah for the Pac-12 title 66-66, winning the head-to-head (1 v1, 2 v 2, to 5 v 5) tiebreaker 4-1.
Bailey Hertenstein of the Buffaloes won the individual title in 19:12.
BIG SKY RECAP
In Cheney, Eastern Washington had identical sixth place finishes in both team races, as the Eagles hosted the Big Sky Conference championship at Fairways Golf Course near the school campus.
With those finishes, the Eagles notched their highest finishes since the 2016 season.
Noah Hasselblad led the way for the Eags, finishing 21st in the men's 8k in 24:33. Cameron Stuard was 45th in 25:24, followed by Marcus Lemon in 49th at 25:36.
Anthony Carlascio was 55th in 25:43, and Austin Sneed was 61st in 26:08, giving Eastern a final score of 214 points.
Number 3 ranked Northern Arizona easily won the team tile with 19 points, with Montana State second with 41 points. Northern Arizona was led by individual winner Nico Young, who ran 22:32, winning by 26 seconds over teammate Drew Bosley.
In the women's 5k, Lilly Fetzer was Eastern's top finisher in 28th at 17:48. She was followed by Faith Martinez ten places back in 18:05, followed by Jasmin Muneton in 40th at 18:07.
One place behind Muneton was Kaylin Sheley in 18:11, and Madilyn Carr closed out the scoring in 48th at 18:19. The Eagles finished the day with 189 points.
Elise Stearns of number 4 ranked Northern Arizona took the individual title in 16:26, leading five other teammates inside the top ten to give the Lumberjacks the team crown with 22 points over runner-up Idaho's 69 points.
"The men's side came through. We had some people step up and we had some people not have their best day, but they balanced each other out. I thought we could get sixth, we barely pulled off sixth and we got the job done. Two places better than last year is the right direction," said EWU head cross country coach Sam Read.
"On the women's side, we had strength in numbers and the pack came through again. A sixth-place finish is a big leap forward from last year. Both teams don't graduate anyone so we have big goals for the future."
For the four Washington Division I schools that competed Friday, the focus turns towards the NCAA West Regionals in two weeks, hosted by the University of Washington at Chambers Creek Regional Park in University Place, south of Tacoma.
Seattle University competes in the Western Athletic Conference championship meet Saturday in Nacogdoches, TX. The women's 6k race starts at 6 am, Pacific, followed by the men's 8k an hour later.
NOTE: The West Coast Conference, Pac-12 Conference, the Big Sky Conference, the USTFCCCA and the sports information offices of Gonzaga, University of Washington, Washington State, and Eastern Washington contributed to this report.
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