Zags run to a strong second place finish at Roy Griak Invitational in Minnesota...
ST PAUL, Minnesota--Junior Wil Smith's (Paul Merca file photo) second place finish at the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota at the Les Bolstad Golf Course led Gonzaga's cross country squad to a second place team finish Friday morning.
Smith covered the 8k course in a time of 24:01, to finish behind New Mexico freshman Habtom Samuel, who won the race in 23:37.
The Zags' Kyle Radosevich finished seventh in 24:21, and was followed by Drew Kolodge in 16th in 24:40.
Bryce Cerkowniak in 24th in 24:47, and Cooper Laird in 31st in 24:57 rounded out Gonzaga's five scorers, giving them a 56-second 1-5 split.
Cal Baptist, the nation's 29th ranked team, won the meet with a low score of 46 points, with the Zags second at 80 points.
Number 9 ranked Portland was fourth with 111.
In what might be a preview of the West Coast Conference championship meet at the end of next month, the Zags beat Portland, as well as Santa Clara (6th, 148), and San Francisco (12th, 322).
"Our men ran with so much grit on a tough 8K course," said Gonzaga head coach Pat Tyson.
While it's too early to think ahead, if Gonzaga has any aspirations of returning to the NCAA cross country championships in November, Griak winner Cal Baptist will be one of the teams that the Zags must get past at the West regional meet in Sacramento on November 10th.
SAM PRAKEL'S US ROAD MILE CHAMPIONSHIP TIME RATIFIED AS INITIAL WORLD RECORD...
University of Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel's winning time of 4:01.21 at the USATF Road Mile Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Nikki Hiltz' winning time of 4:27.97 was officially ratified by World Athletics Friday as the initial world record for the event.
The road mile became an official world record event on September 1st. As announced after the World Athletics Council Meeting in November 2022, official recognition of a world record required a performance of at least 3:50.00 (men) or 4:19.00 (women) between 1 January and 1 September 2023. If they were not met, the fastest recorded record-eligible performances would be recognized as the world records.
As such, the winning times at the US Road Mile Championships in Des Moines on April 25th proved to be the fastest eligible performances within that time frame and they have now been ratified as the inaugural world records.
Prakel is entered in the mile for Team USATF at next weekend's World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, where it's expected that the road mile world record will fall.
NOTE: The sports information offices of Gonzaga University and the University of Minnesota, as well as World Athletics contributed to this report.
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