Gonzaga University
NCAA Western Regional
Gonzaga's Chris Boyle 27th In NCAA Cross Country Regional
11/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 13, 2010
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - Junior Chris Boyle made quite an improvement in his second appearance at the NCAA West Regional cross country championship Saturday.
After finishing 101st a year ago at the same course, he finished 27th Saturday in 30:41.12 over the 10,000 meter Springfield Country Club layout on a cold, drizzly morning.
"He ran pretty well, a good race," Gonzaga head coach Pat Tyson said. "He beat everybody from the West Coast Conference he competed against two weeks ago," although the University of Portland's Trevor Dunbar, the individual champion, and Lars Erik Malde, who finished 12th, did not compete in the WCC Championships two weeks ago. Dunbar's winning time was 29:57.89 as he unseated defending champion Chris Derrick of Stanford University who was seventh in 30:14.57.
"He is definitely a great one," Tyson said in praise of Boyle, who finished fourth in the WCC Championships. "But he was disappointed he didn't finish higher. He wants to run in the NCAA Meet."
Tyson predicted it would have taken at least a top 25 finish to be on the cusp for one of the five NCAA at-large berths out of the West Region.
The University of Oregon and Stanford University men's team earned automatic berths into the NCAA Championship by virtue of their 1-2 finish Saturday.
"Chris would have been the No. 6 runner on both Oregon and Stanford today, and they were the top two teams in the region. He was the third best runner in the state of Washington today. He was only 25 seconds out of the top 10," Tyson said.
Eastern Washington University's Kyle King (19th) and Washington State University's Justin Englund (25th) were the only two runners from state of Washington teams to finish higher than Boyle.
The NCAA West Region covers teams from the states of Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. There are three western Universities that are exceptions - Idaho State, Nevada and Northern Arizona, which are in the Mountain Region.
The 27th-place finish by Boyle was also the best NCAA West Region finish by a Bulldog, besting Joe Miller's 39th-place finish in the 2005 race hosted by Stanford University.
