Cross Country Men Earn Program's Highest Ranking
10/10/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
NEW ORLEANS - The Gonzaga men's cross country team jumped from 13th to 7th in the most recent West Region rankings released by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association poll.
The ranking for head coach Pat Tyson's squad is the highest in program history. The Zags put together a strong showing in each of their last two meets with an impressive performance at the prestigious Notre Dame Invitational and narrowly falling to Navy in a duel.
"The poll is done by a group of your peers, so it's great to know that they thought highly enough of us in beating a bunch of highly-ranked teams," Tyson said. "It validates that Gonzaga is on the rise. It's nice to be able to mix it up with the Pac-12 and inch forward. It's a great thing for our student-athletes and our university, and it's nice to know that we made the biggest jump of any school in the nation."
At Notre Dame, senior Nick Roche, sophomore Troy Fraley and junior Kyle Branch all finished in the top 75 to help the Zags defeat 11 other schools, including the host Fighting Irish, to finish 13th overall. The race featured 24 teams, all ranked in their respective regions. Seven of which were ranked in the nation's top 25. including No. 3 BYU, No. 16 North Carolina State, No. 18 Tulsa, No. 20 Princeton, No. 23 Eastern Kentucky, No. 24 Florida State and No. 25 Colorado State. All seven of those teams, including three more are ranked nationally this week.
Gonzaga's men will be back in action at the Inland Empire Classic in Lewiston, Idaho, on Saturday, Oct. 18. The meet, hosted by Lewis-Clark State College, will begin at 10:30 a.m.
Check out the full USTFCCCA Rankings here.
