Bulldog Harriers Look To Make Strides At WCC Championship
10/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SPOKANE, Wash. - Forty years ago next month Gonzaga University head men's cross country coach Pat Tyson helped lead the University of Oregon to the NCAA Cross Country Championship.
Earlier this week, Tyson drew upon that moment 40 years ago to help motivate and put the nerves at ease for the Bulldog men's and women's cross country teams as they prepare for the West Coast Conference Championship Saturday at Crystal Springs Golf Course in Belmont, Calif.
The WCC will broadcast the championship live, with the livestream available at the Cross Country Championships Central page on WCCsports.com and YouTube.com. Viewers will see the start and finish, as well as the key checkpoints on the course via a four-camera shoot with graphics and commentators.
Saturday's men's race begins at 9 a.m. with the women at 9:45 a.m.
"I talked to them and said 40 years ago next month I was on a team that won the NCAA title," Tyson said.
One teammate and former roommate of Tyson admitted to being nervous. The young man was Steve Prefontaine, the greatest distance runner in Ducks history and arguably the best distance runner in the history of the NCAA.
"I brought out a paper that quoted 'Pre' as saying he was nervous at the line, too. While everybody thought he was the favorite to win the race, he was still nervous," Tyson recalled. "We were all nervous. Coach (Bill) Dellinger was never one to give us a big speech. He kept it real simple and said go out and do your best. I like that. I'll never forget all of us as athletes sitting around in the hotel thinking wouldn't it be nice to be home and watching cartoons. Then we got our jersey on, looked in the mirror and got our game face on. Then when the race was over we said we wouldn't really trade that moment for anything back home to represent Oregon, and in this case to represent Gonzaga."
Tyson is looking for his Bulldogs to make their move in the WCC Championship this season. Last year the Bulldog men replicated their fifth-place finish of the previous year, Tyson's first at the helm, while the women improved one spot from 2009 to finish fifth last season. The Bulldogs are looking for bigger and better things this Saturday.
On the men's side, the University of Portland has won 32 consecutive WCC titles and enters Saturday ranked eighth in the latest USTFCCCA poll.
But there might be a new sheriff in town in the form of BYU, which joined the conference July 1 and will provide Portland perhaps its toughest test and is given a good chance of ending the Pilots domination. The Cougars are ranked third in the most recent poll.
Tyson, who saw his Bulldog crack the Far West Regional rankings for the first time in history at No. 14 two weeks ago, all but concedes the top two spots to the Pilots and Cougars, but in no particular order.
"They are two of the more outstanding teams in America," Tyson said of Portland and BYU. "The battle is for third and we're in that battle with the University of San Francisco, Loyola Marymount University and Santa Clara University. We believe the nine men going are going to represent Gonzaga very, very well."
The nine-man contingent Tyson and assistant coach Patty Ley have picked to run Saturday are freshmen Alex Foote and Nick Roche; sophomores Brett Felnagle, Nate Gesell, Willie Milam and Robert Walgren, juniors Tate Kelly and Patrick Richie, and senior Andrew Walker.
Kelly, Walgren, Felnagle and Milam all competed in the championship last season, Kelly finishing 21st in 29:09 over the 8K course as the top returnee for this year's Bulldogs.
Junior Chris Boyle, fourth a year ago and a two-time participant in the West Regional for the Bulldogs, is redshirting this season.
Tyson is looking for strong showings from Kelly and Walker in particular. Kelly has been consistent since missing the first two meets with a thigh strain, and Walker was sidelined until the last two meets and has come on strong to challenge Kelly for the No. 1 spot on the team.
"We need a couple of men to step up and be in that top 20. Give us a number, whatever that number might be, but it must be in the teens," Tyson said of the performance he needs from his men's team to have a legitimate chance at third. "Then we need to get three low scores in the 20's and it puts us in position to get 100 (points) and that's a pretty good number."
The Bulldogs finished fifth with 107 points last year, while third place Santa Clara had 96.
Tyson said the nine men wearing the jersey Saturday are "quite a nine. If you go back to our last meet there are so many kids within a one-minute window. Eight of them are within a 16-second window. We had a little two-mile tempo on the track last Saturday and Walgren is back (after a disappointing finish in the last regular-season competition) and ran well. Tate is consistent, doesn't ever have a bad day. It's exciting to see Andrew back. We have some veterans. We have five guys who have been there before. You look at Walgren and Felnagle who is looking good, too. Tate is solid and Richie is back in the game. We can't forget Willie Milam who started this thing out against Oregon early on," Tyson said.
"Then you have these two little Oregonians in Foote and Roche. They are consistent. They don't have rough days. They are excited to be down there and do a number on the other freshmen. We're excited for Nate Gesell who ran a good race at the Erik Anderson Memorial late in the year," Tyson continued.
While the Bulldog women lack the WCC Championship experience of the men - Emily Thomas is the only returnee to the championship from last year - the women have looked good all year and could shake up the WCC Saturday.
The women's line-up will have freshmen Erin Bergmann, Maggie Jones and Elizabeth Ryan; sophomores Emily Thomas, Emily Albrecht, Krista Beyer, Stephanie Moore, Catherine Theobald , and junior Lindsey Drake.
Thomas and Drake have been the top two for the Bulldogs this year, Drake picking up her first collegiate victory at the Inland Northwest Challenge in the final tune-up for this weekend after finishing a close second in two other outings this season. Thomas missed three weeks but returned with a strong showing in the final regular-season meet of the year.
Thomas is the only member of the nine who will be competing with WCC experience, finishing 22nd a year ago in 22:17 for the 6K.
The women are a little different in the experience mode. Emily is the lone, solo veteran of the course. Patty (assistant coach Ley) has done a marvelous job of creating a nice, relaxed state of mind going into the conference meet," Tyson said.
Thomas and Drake have been 1-2 for the Bulldogs - in no particular order - for most of the season with the exception of when Thomas was sidelined, and Tyson thinks they are both capable of Top 10 finishes. If the Bulldogs are to take that big leap this year Drake and Thomas probably need Top 15 or better finishes.
"Emily and Lindsey are two young ladies who are single-digit numbers potentially. We don't want to put that pressure on them. Let's run well as a team, don't worry about ourselves as individuals. Our whole mission is run well as a team and you'll run well as an individual. When they come through that line and get those numbers, hopefully those numbers provide a score that shows respect and Patty and I are of agreement they are deserving to go on to Regionals," Tyson said of the two who push each other during the course of a race.
The upper echelon of the WCC on the women's side may be easier to penetrate then it is on the men's side, although Tyson believes there are some strong women's teams in the WCC.
"On the women's side similarly compared to the men, the USF women (defending WCC champion) look very good. Certainly Portland and BYU are traditionally great teams. If we could knock off one of those teams it would be really cool. Come close it would be fantastic. LMU is a contender and SCU has always been a little bit of a thorn in our side. The women on a great day could be exciting with Emily and Lindsey and the rest of the posse putting us in position to hopefully go to Palo Alto in two weeks," Tyson said of the goal of qualifying the team as a Regional participant in the meet hosted by Stanford University Nov. 12.
Tyson knows the women's team is young, which bodes well for the future, but could lead to a surprise finish come Saturday. Tyson said he does talk about Regional qualifying.
"We do talk about Regionals a lot," Tyson said. "I give them that line of FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) - 'The only thing to fear, is fear itself.'"
And, of course, a little bit of a case of the nerves.
