Cougs and Zags win Pac-12 team titles on Conference Championship Friday...
BOISE, Idaho--Thirteenth ranked Washington State, last year's West Coast Conference champions, put six runners across the line in the top twenty to score a 50-62 win over host Boise State to win the women's 6k team title at the Pac-12 cross country championships Friday morning at Warm Springs Golf Course, while the Gonzaga men scored a mild upset in taking down pre-meet favorite Washington State.
WOMEN'S RECAP
As expected, Washington State's Nelly Jemeli (Tyler McFarland/PAC-12 photo), and pre-race favorite Millie Bii took to the front, along with Oregon State's Noemi Lungdren.
Shortly after the first of three laps of the course, Boise State's Kaiya Robertson worked her way to the front to challenge Bii, Jemeli and Lundgren.
On the final lap, Jemeli and Robertson broke away from Bii and Lundgren.
Jemeli took the win in 19:57, with Robertson second in 20:00.
Bii was third in 20:08. with Lundgren fourth in 20:13.
Beyond Bii, Lauren Hoyt was 13th for the Cougs in 20:30, Faith Kimaiyo 15th in 20:34, and Aleeya Cossey in 18th in 20:37 to finish with a 1-5 split of 40 seconds.
For Gonzaga, Boise native Audrey Orme led the way in seventh, running 20:23, with fellow freshman Sloan Dickson ninth in 20:24.
The Zags had a gap between Dickson and their next runner, Emma Taggi, who wass 26th in 20:53. Charlotte Dillon was one spot behind in 20:55, and Maria Taggi 32nd in 21:07, giving the Zags a 1-5 split of 44 seconds.
Washington State took the team title with 50 points, while Gonzaga ended up fifth with 101 points.
MEN'S RECAP
The talk among the knowledgeable cross country fans before the race was whether or not Washington State could win the Pac-12 title despite not running well as a team three weeks ago at the Nuttycombe Invitational, where they ran a 1-5 split of 2:24.
Gonzaga's Logan Law and Logan Schwartz went to the front for the first of four 2k laps in the men's 8k championship race, with the Washington State All-America duo of Solomon Kipchoge (Tyler McFarland/PAC-12 photo) and Evans Kurui a step behind, and Boise State's Brian Kiprotich another step behind the two Cougs.
Behind that group was a group of white clad runners from Utah State, whose best shot at a team title was to beat the field by packing runners just off the pace of the front runners.
As it turned out, Utah State's pack running mentality worked for three quarters of the race, as they were ahead of the field for half the race.
Up front, the Cougars' Kipchoge and Kurui, along with Boise State's Kiprotich, broke away from everyone else, and it was a race to see who could outlast who.
By the end of the third lap, the two Cougars opened up a gap on Kiprotich, then it became a battle between Kipchoge, last year's West Coast Conference and NCAA West Regional champ, and Kurui, who won both titles in 2024.
In the end, Kipchoge took the win in 22:47, eleven seconds ahead of Kurui, with Kiprotich third in 23:13.
Behind the trio, Gonzaga's Dylan Weniger was fourth in 23:35, while Zag freshman Dylan Rowell from Anacortes, who was up in the top group, but whose RFID timing chip was not registering on the timing mats at the end of each lap, finished sixth in 23:39.
Gonzaga's Logan Schwartz was seventh in 23:40, and fellow Zag Logan Law was ninth in 23:45.
Washington State's Kutoven Stevens battled his way to become the Cougars' third runner in, finishing 11th in 23:52, while Gonzaga's Ryan Mitchell was their all important fifth runner across the line in 13th in 23:59.
For Washington State, Kade Brownell was their number four runner, finishing 18th in 24:03, and Evan Bruce rounded out their scorers in 28th in 24:38.
Despite an improvement over their performance at Nuttycombe, the Cougars finished with a 1-5 split of 1:51 and a final team score of 59 points, good for third.
In contrast, Gonzaga executed a near perfect team race, placing all five scorers in the top 13, and a 1-5 split of 24 seconds, to take home the first Pac-12 team title in the school's debut in the newly reconstituted conference.
The 24-second 1-5 split was the Bulldogs' best effort in a major race this season.
Afterwards, Gonzaga men's head coach Pat Tyson, who will retire at the end of the 2026-27 school year said, "This feeling is just unbelievable to be honest with you. This is a dream come true for the guys", in describing the win immediately after the final results were confirmed.
SHERRY DRURY LEADS DAWGS TO FOURTH PLACE FINISH AT B1G TENS...
Washington grabbed fourth overall with 115 points and was able to pick up a key win over 25th-ranked Minnesota, which placed fifth. No. 15 Oregon got the win with 35 points, then No. 23 Northwestern and No. 26 Penn State were second and third with 90 and 92 points.
For the second straight meet, Drury led the way, running ninth in a time of 20:08, as Oregon's Diana Cherotich won in 18:57.
Nicole Bissell was next across the line for Washington in 20th in 20:20, followed by Milla Roberts in 22nd in 20:25.
Abby Hennessy was 28th in 20:31, and Carmel Fitzgibbon was 36th to round out the UW scorers in 20:39.
The Huskies finished with a 1-5 split of 31 seconds.
In the men's 8k race, the Huskies also came in seeded fifth in the field with a number 29 national ranking. UW wound up sixth overall with 165 points, as Oregon won the team title with 23 points.
Four of the five teams to finish ahead of the men today are ranked 22nd or higher, with Michigan the one unranked team to get past the Dawgs in fifth-place.
Theo Schucht, the Boston College transfer in his first season as a Husky, led UW as he did two weeks ago at the Nuttycombe Invitational. He finished 14th overall in a time of 23:24. That earns Schucht All-Big Ten Second Team.
Fourth-year Tyrone Gorze went out solo early in the race and held the lead past the halfway point, but he was eventually tracked down by the pack and he wound up 26th overall in 23:45.
Jamar Distel moved up well throughout the race, including gaining 20 spots over the final kilometer, and he finished 39th in 23:55. Isaac Briggs was the No. 4 Husky across, placing 45th in 24:02. Rounding out the score was third-year Parker Mong in 47th in 24:04.
Washington finished with a 1-5 split of 40 seconds.
As a side note, former Husky Evan Jenkins from Camas, finished third overall in his season debut, running 23:07.
EAGLES EIGHTH AND NINTH AT BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIPS IN FLAGSTAFF...
In Flagstaff, Arizona, the Eastern Washington women's team finished in eighth place at the Big Sky Conference championships meet contested at Buffalo Park.
The women, who raced 5 kilometers, were led by senior Sara Sanders, who finished 26th in 17:25.
Northern Arizona's Ava Mitchell won the race in 15:36, as the Lumberjacks placed seven runners in the top eight to win the team title going away with 16 points.
Eastern's eighth place total was 228 points.
In the men's 8k race, Owen Higgins was the first Eagle across the line, finishing 49th in 25:50.
Northern Arizona's Erik Le Roux took the win in 23:51 as his team put seven runners in the top ten to take the win with 20 points.
Eastern finished ninth with a final score of 254 points in the eleven-team field.
NELSON AND SCHMIDT LEAD THE WAY FOR SEATTLE U AT WCC CHAMPS...
In San Diego's Tecolote Shores at Mission Bay Park, Adelaide Nelson and Preston Schmidt were the top runners for Seattle University at the West Coast Conference championships.
In the women's 6k race, Nelson finished 20th in a time of 22:29, as the Redhawks finished fifth in the nine team race with 148 points.
Portland's Latham West scored a five second win, crossing the line in 20:32.
The University of San Francisco took the team title with 28 points, placing their five scoring runners inside the top nine.
In the men's 8k race, Schmidt led the way for SeattleU, finishing 18th in 25:28.
Portland's Nolan Turgeon won the race, also by a five second margin, crossing the line in 24:26.
The Pilots put five runners across the line in the top ten to beat out San Francisco by a 32-65 margin.
Seattle U's 129 points was good enough for a sixth place finish in the eight-team field.
For all five Washington Division I schools, the focus is on the NCAA West Regional championship race in exactly two weeks in Sacramento, California with potential spots to the NCAA championship race in Terre Haute, Indiana on the line, particularly for Gonzaga, Washington State, and Washington.
NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference and the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Washington State, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington and Seattle University contributed to this report.
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