Gesell, Drake Lead Bulldog Squads To Second Place Finishes
9/24/2011 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SPOKANE, Wash. - Lindsey Drake finished third for the women and Nate Gesell was seventh for the men as they led their respective Gonzaga University cross country teams to second-place finishes at the Erik Anderson Memorial Invitational on a warm Saturday at Plantes Ferry.
Gonzaga's men had 95 points to finish behind the Colorado School of Mines, the fourth-ranked NCAA Division II school in the country, with 27 points. Western Washington University was third with 181.
On the women's side, the Bulldogs had 114 points while Washington State University finished first with 21 points. WWU was also third on the women's side with 133 points.
The meet, which featured 27 teams, was a dry run for the 24-team NCAA Division II Regionals Nov. 5 and the 32-team NCAA Division II Nationals Nov. 19.
Both the men and women were without some top runners Saturday. Emily Thomas was a late precautionary scratch and freshman Maggie Jones was also held out of the met. On the men's side, Andrew Walker continues to get closer to being able to compete and veteran Chris Boyle is redshirting.
Drake, a redshirt junior who sat out the 2010 season, has come on strong to be one of the leaders all season. She liked her performance Saturday, a 21:16.65 over the 6K layout.
"I feel pretty good about it," she said after receiving her third-place medal and team trophy. "It's been awhile since I raced a 6K. I'm excited to get out there again, get off my injury and come back strong."
But she said it "was weird" without Thomas alongside her. "It made me nervous in the beginning. Emily and I always start out strong together, race each other, work out together in practices and I know if she was in this race she would be right up there with me and maybe ahead of me pushing me along. I missed her but I know she's proud of me."
The San Diego, Calif., native said she pretty much followed her strategy.
"My strategy was be in a position to win the entire race and that last K try to go for the win. It didn't exactly go the way as planned. Sometimes you just have to get in there to race and compete, and that's what I did. I tried," she said.
Assistant coach Patty Ley was more than happy with Drake's effort.
"Lindsey went out a little quick, but she's learning how to balance that. She ran with Ruby Roberts, beat her that first meet, but Ruby is an awesome athlete. In her four years at WSU she will probably be an All-American at some point. To run with her as long as she did and to be there, the next time around she'll take another shot at it," Ley said.
The Drake-Roberts duel may be one of the underlying stories in meets to come. Drake beat the sophomore Roberts, who won Saturday's race in 20:53.84, by 11 seconds in the season opening Inland Clash of the Northwest at Mead High, Drake taking third, Roberts fourth.
Ley said it was a "really god day. Especially for the younger girls who had never run a 6K before, and it's not the easiest thing in the world to adapt to. It's a little scary."
And to perform so well with the likes of Thomas and Jones out of the lineup was even more impressive.
"We ran without a couple of athletes out of our top seven, so to run like that is awesome. It's great to see their confidence building and feeling like we can race with a lot more people than we have in the past," Ley said of the progress being made.
While some of the veterans who were expected to do well did so, there were still some runners who stepped it up for both the men and women.
"Erin Bergmann ran really well, Krista Beyer had a great race. Emily Albrecht had a great race. It's amazing to see how much Emily has improved from last year when she kind of not thinking of herself as a distance runner, and now she's running very well," Ley said.
Bergmann was the second Gonzaga runner to cross the finish line in 25th place in 22:38.87, Albrecht was 27th in 22:41.28, Elizabeth Ryan was 31st in 22:50.53 and Beyer was 36th in 23:04.96.
Tyson was equally as excited about the effort the men gave.
"I think we ran well. To get second in a meet with 27 teams is good. What we're wanting our kids to do is take risks. Gesell went out and some people thought he might be a little suicidal. He had about a 30 meter lead early, the rest of the pack caught him, he faded to about 10th or 12th and he finished seventh. He had a great finish and that will pay off. He was our No. 1 runner today. That's pretty exciting," Tyson said.
Gesell, a sophomore on the young men's team who finished in 24:50.20, said he figured why not when he went to lead and still held it about a mile into the race.
"I kind of adjusted at the start of the race, was feeling good so why not try something," he said. "I was trying to stick with the guys I was in the group with. I know I've raced against a couple of those guys and they are pretty fast. I wanted to stick with them as long as I could."
He was also happy with the total team effort.
"I think as a whole we're a lot better than we were last year. We're all contributing, everyone is just so much better than last year," he said.
Sophomore Willie Milam, who has established himself halfway through the season as the No. 1 runner for the Bulldogs, was held out of a couple workouts while feeling ill this week. He was the second Bulldog runner in 15th place in 25:10.46. Tate Kelly, making his first appearance of the season, was 18th in 25:19.67, freshman Alex Foote was 27th in 25:43.60 and Robert Walgren was 28th in 25:38.86.
"Willie has had a little illness this week and we had to keep him out of a couple of practices. He helped the team. Tate Kelly is rusty, but he hasn't done much in three weeks. Robert Walgren was right there," Tyson said.
If there was a surprise for Tyson Saturday it was Foote, a freshman from Aloha, Ore.
"You don't know which freshman is going to be there. Foote broke a wrist on Monday, got the okay to run maybe as late as last night (Friday) and he's our fifth man. There are some kids who performed really well, a few that were a little flat. But it's a long run, a journey," Tyson said of the season.
As Tyson and Ley begin to align the squad for the West Coast Conference Championship in four weeks, Tyson said Saturday didn't do much to separate runners.
"Muddier," he said when asked if the WCC picture got clearer or muddier with Saturday's performance. "With Andrew Walker still banged up, hopefully we'll get him in a race next week. Patrick Richie was No. 2 man at Oregon but flat today. You still honor what he did the first couple of meets. We held out Emily Thomas and Maggie Jones on the women's side. But it's (the WCC lineup) still all over the board."
The Zags will continue to jockey for spots on the WCC Championship travel roster next Friday at the Montana Invitational in Missoula, a meet that was originally scheduled for Saturday but moved to Friday because of a football conflict.
