Erik Anderson Invitational Next Test For Bulldog Runners
9/20/2013 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
SPOKANE, Wash. - With six weeks remaining until the West Coast Conference Championship, Gonzaga University's cross country coaches are starting to formulate the 9-person roster that will make the sojourn to Pepperdine University.
That preparation continues Saturday at Plantes Ferry in the Spokane Valley for the Erik Anderson Invitational hosted by the Spokane Sports Commission and the Community Colleges of Spokane. The men's 8K race begins at 10:45 a.m. with the women racing a 6K at 11:45 a.m.
But director of cross country and head men's coach Pat Tyson and head women's coach Patty Ley are still at the mercy of the injury bug.
"That is part of our journey. You have to be ready in case Brent Felnagle, Conor McCandless, Collin O'Neil, Ned Fischer and Nate Gesell can't go," Tyson said as he rattled off the names of Gonzaga's injured. "If you get one of those back, great. If we got them all back it would be amazing. But I have to be realistic, so you have to get the confidence of some of the other guys on the team ready to join our top four."
That top four is Nick Roche, Willie Milam, Troy Fraley and Kyle Branch.
Ley's situation isn't quite as uncertain as Tyson's.
"We're actually coming back around. They aren't ready to compete yet, but several are back and beginning to run. We'll be easing them in; making more of their workouts running and less cross training. They've been cross training hard so they are relatively fit. Lara (Tuthill) is back running. We're still going to take out time with her. It's looking good. We're getting there," Ley said.
Ley said sophomores Katy Culver and Zoë Urcadez will sit out Saturday, but Maggie Jones, hampered a little in the preseason, is progressing well through the first two meets.
"Maggie is doing well. We're pulling Katy and Zoë because they aren't as strong yet, but hopefully it's an opportunity for a couple other people to step up and show they are ready to go," Ley said. "I'd rather have them (Culver and Urcadez) for the Dellinger and for a bigger meet."
Tyson said Milam and Roche will not be in attendance as both have out-of-town weddings to attend. Fraley, Branch and Robert Walgren, who is redshirting, will run for a workout and also stay in a pack with some of the others who are battling for WCC spots.
"It will be their task to take some of those guys like Danny Lunder, Andy Phillips, Scott Davis, Matt Crichlow and Braden van Deynze and put them in a position where they can be upgraded. I don't know how far I'm going to let those three go with them before they can take off. We may go as long as 6K or as short as 4K and for half of the race they can be helping those kids.
"So we'll have two flocks out there - our ‘A' flock and then we have a rookie group, as I call it, of young athletes. Guys like Kinsly Smith, Travis Hensley, Max Kaderabeck, Ben Stout and Henry Morris who will go a little slower and flock together and have a good test effort," Tyson said of the race strategy.
Ley said preparations are beginning looking ahead to the WCC Championship, and it's tough to hold people out this week with a strong team like Lipscomb University coming to town. Lipscomb is ranked fifth in the South Region.
"Making sure they are healthy, making sure they get the work they need," Ley said of the process leading up to the conference meet. "It's a little tough. Lipscomb is coming up and they have a solid team so that weakens us against them. That's a rough one, but at the same time you have to do the right thing right now to have them ready down the road."
One runner Ley isn't holding out is senior Lauren Bergam, the East Valley graduate who grew up in the shadows of Plantes Ferry.
"Lauren's parents live five or 10 minutes away so we'll let her do something good and have a good race in her backyard. You don't get to do that very often," Ley noted.
Tyson said Oct. 19 at the Inland Northwest Classic in Lewiston, Idaho, is the realistic cutoff for anyone being able to compete in the WCC Championship, and even then it might not be enough time for those coming off injury.
"When you get down to the nitty gritty, where will they be in one month? Where will they be when we are down in Lewiston?" Tyson questioned of the injured runners. "That meet is really the last hurrah for who are going to be the nine guys going to the West Coast Conference. We do have a pretty solid amount of time, I just don't see it happening in two weeks at the Bill Dellinger and that's a big meet. But a month is good. Hopefully, we'll have some good news to help stimulate the team with a couple of those guys. If not, hopefully we'll have good news that we've got a couple more guys who have stepped it up and got closer to where Kyle Branch got last weekend."
Tyson came away from the Sundodger knowing he has four solid runners right now.
"They are in. What they did at Sundodger showed they are ready," Tyson said of Roche, Milam, Fraley and Branch. "Nick ran the fastest 8K in Gonzaga history at 24:08, Willie ran the third fastest time in 24:16, Troy is the fastest freshman by far in Gonzaga history and pops the fourth best time in Gonzaga history at 24:24 and Kyle is the fifth fastest in 24:25. Obviously, Sundodger is a very fast course. But they did it. We have a bench mark. Nick, Willie, Troy and Kyle are in and that's a great group. Those marks showed they are going to be major players for us in the WCC."
Ley is looking for her squad to execute a full race.
"We need to have a better grasp of that to execute a little more completely. It's not that we haven't executed, we just haven't executed a complete race. We're trying to knock those kinks out and do the right things so we're set up for those bigger races," she said.
Ley said Saturday could go a long way to determining the nine runners who will go to the WCC meet, and she doesn't know how many spots might still be up for grabs.
"It's hard to say because of the kids coming off injury and seeing where they come to; whether they get back to that point. I'm certain they will. We have time for them to show fitness and show that level. Some of the workouts are starting to show we might have some ladies ready to step into a new position. It will be interesting this weekend to see who steps up a little bit," Ley predicted.
The men will also be competing with Lipscomb, ranked sixth in the South region while the Bulldog men climbed to 13th this week in the latest USTFCCCA rankings.
"You have a lot of small schools and certainly not a lot of NCAA Division I schools. Lipscomb is ranked 10th in preseason and now are sixth in the South Region. They've got to be a darn good team and we respect that. Lewis-Clark State College has a runner who won the Mead meet. It's not like we are in this low profile competition, but at the same time we're going to look at it a little differently. Our next major team effort we'd like to be is the Dellinger Invitational in Eugene," Tyson said.
