Roche, Bergam Pace Bulldogs At Sundodger Invitational
9/14/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SEATTLE, Wash. - Nick Roche paced Gonzaga University's men's cross country team to a third place finish Saturday at the Sundodger Invitational to lead a strong day for the Bulldog men and women.
Roche was fifth in 24:09 over the 8K Lincoln Park course in Seattle while the Bulldogs women had Lauren Bergam and Maggie Jones in the top 20 as the women placed fourth.
Host University of Washington swept both races for the seventh straight year. The Bulldog men scored 57 points for third behind the Huskies (30) and Washington State University (52).
The Zag women scored 110 points to trail UW (19), Oregon State University (58) and the University of Idaho (87).
The Bulldog men also got a 13th-place finish from Willie Milan in 24:17, Troy Fraley was 15th in 24:24 and Kyle Branch took 16th in 24:26.
Bergam covered the 8K women's course in 21:32 for 14th and Jones was right behind in 17th in 21:48. Amelia Evans was the third Bulldog runner in 21:59, Katy Culver placed 27th in 22:00 and Alison Fraher took 37th in 22:13.
The men are still without the services of several key runners, including Brent Felnagle, Conor McCandless and Colin O'Neil, making Saturday's showing all the more impressive.
"You have to look at it that way," Gonzaga director of cross country and head men's coach Pat Tyson said. "When you're leaving out so many very good runners it's a positive out to have the others show so well."
Tyson was especially pleased with the efforts of Roche and Branch, but said he is still waiting for that fifth guy that can score.
"We talked about it," Tyson said. "Do we have a fourth and fifth guy that can be in the hunt? We had a fourth today but our fifth didn't pop. Without being too negative because it is early in the season, but who is going to step it up. Kyle Branch stepped it up today. He ran the race of his life."
Danny Lunder was the fifth Bulldog across the line in 40th place in 25:07, but Tyson said the gap between fourth and fifth is still too much.
"We had 17 seconds between first and fourth but 31 seconds between fourth and fifth. That's 20 runners ahead of our number five guy and that's too many. It's not going to put you in the game," Tyson said. "We know what we need to do and we have the guys to get there."
Tyson said he's hopeful many of the injured will be ready for the Bill Dellinger Invitational in three weeks.
The women, meanwhile, over corrected from what they did in the season opener, according to head women's coach Patty Ley.
"They over corrected. The last time they came out too aggressive and today they came out too passive. We didn't react early enough, but once we got to about the 2K mark we raced well, but the gaps had already happened," Ley said.
But all is not lost.
"Today was a great running experience. From where they started, they raced well. We'll keep working on it and they'll get it right."
Ley said the individuals might have been three to five places better had they not started so far back, but she doesn't know if they would have caught Idaho for third.
"We would have been more competitive, but Oregon State is pulling everything together and looked solid. We hope we can get down to where OSU was today. Idaho is also a much-improved team. We applied the pressure on them last year and they responded this year. It's kind of good to see those Northwest schools challenging each other," Ley said of the rivalries.
The men and women will be in action again next week at the Erik Anderson Invitational at Plantes Ferry in Spokane.
