Bulldogs Get Final Dress Rehearsal For WCC Championship
10/19/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
LEWISTON, Idaho - Gonzaga University's men's and women's cross country teams got their final tune-up for the West Coast Conference Championship in two weeks, and for the most part the Bulldog coaches came away pleased.
Head women's coach Petty Ley held out some of her top runners and finished third with 65 points behind Washington State University (24 points) and Eastern Washington University (33) at the Inland Northwest Classic.
"Missing a couple of bodies hurt us today, but we're okay. We ran but we didn't race. That same group is trying to improve its racing skills. We had a nice pack with 11 seconds separating one-through-five and just 20 seconds between one and seven," Ley said.
Maggie Jones was the top Bulldog woman across the finish line, finishing 16th overall in 17:50 over the 5K Lewiston Orchards layout. Alison Fraher was 18th in 17:51 and Katy Culver 22nd in 17:55. A pack of Bulldogs finished 24-26 with Lara Tuthill, Shelly Davis and Taylor Cherry all timed in 18:01.
The person that stepped up with the best race was Alison Fraher," Ley said. "She had a great race. She doubted herself and ended up being our number two runner today. Lara showed big improvement today. Further back in the pack we had a tone of ladies with their best 5K time.
The Gonzaga men placed second with 39 points behind Washington State (24) and ahead of EWU (63).
Willie Milam placed fifth overall for the Bulldog men in a school record 23:31 over what director of cross country and head men's coach Pat Tyson called "a fast 8K course. He's the first Zag to break 24 minutes for an 8K. He was just seven seconds out of second."
Nick Roche was seventh in 23:51.
"Roche and Willie fed off each other for awhile," Tyson said. "Roche went out fast and then fell back a little bit. Willie was in the hunt for third and was closing in over the last 400 meters."
Troy Fraley was 19th in 24:40, Colin O'Neil made his season debut in 20th in 24:41, Travis Hensley provided the surprise of the day and finished 23rd in 24:50 as the fifth Bulldog. Danny Lunder was the sixth GU finisher in 24:52, Matt Crichlow was the seventh Bulldog in 24:55 and Ian Goldizen was the eighth Bulldog in 24:59.
"Those eight are in and we're going to keep Kyle Branch in there even though he had a rough day today," Tyson of his nine-man team for the WCC Championship. "Kyle had a death in the family and is leaving tomorrow for the funeral. He's been there all year for us and he'll be one of our nine."
O'Neil has been sidelined all fall with an injury, but Tyson said he looked good in his debut after working hard the last couple of weeks to get himself back into running shape.
Tyson said Hensley, a freshman from University Place, Wash., was the real story, however.
"He never was invited to running camp. I was kind of doing him a favor because he was injured his senior year. When he went out he went out hard and was near the front today. He never faded and hung on. If you look at his time he was only nine seconds behind O'Neil and Fraley. It was a bit of a shock but a pretty cool story. He earned his spot today."
Hensley was running unattached until two weeks ago at the Bill Dellinger Invitational when Tyson put him in a jersey.
A year ago Hensley finished 11th in the Washington State Class A Championship in 16:32 for 5K in helping Charles Wright Academy capture the team title. As a junior he finished 35th in the State A meet in 17:14 as Charles Wright placed fourth and as a sophomore he was ninth at State in 16:24.3 to help his team to third.
Ley said she won't decide the women's nine-person delegation to the WCC Championship until the middle of the week as she awaits word on an injury.
Ley said her young team will "have to grow up pretty quick in the next couple of weeks. Down the road it's an exciting future because we are so young. A lot of ladies had best times today. It was nice to be able to end the season for a lot of the women on a course that they can see all the work they put in and did get better. Today's course was polar opposite of last year when it was so muddy. It was hard and fast this year."
Overall Tyson was pleased with Saturday.
"It was a nice little dress rehearsal," Tyson said in reference to getting ready for the WCC Championship Nov. 2 hosted by Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
