Gonzaga University
Cougar Classic
GU sweeps individual, team titles at Cougar Classic
9/10/2021 7:40:00 PM | Cross Country
Kristen Garcia, Kyle Radosevich win respective races
COLFAX, Wash. — In rainy conditions at the Colfax Golf Course Friday, Kristen Garcia and Kyle Radosevich both took home individual titles to power both Gonzaga cross country squads to team wins at the WSU Cougar Classic.
Garcia's 20:43.8 time in the women's 6K was the fastest of her career and the sixth-fastest 6K in program history, beating the next-fastest finisher by more than 14 seconds to anchor a team victory for the women and making it the second Cougar Classic in a row that male and female Zag runners both took first place after Yacine Guermali and Claire Manley won in 2019.
Following Garcia was Sadie Tuckwood, who took fourth with a time of 21:08.9. Alicia Anderson ran the fastest 6k of her collegiate career (21:16.5) for a seventh-place finish, followed by true freshman Rosina Machu (21:19.6) in ninth and Brittney Hansen (21:27.2) in tenth. Elisabeth Danis (12th, 21:39.2), Makenna Edwards (14th, 21:48.1), Paxton Depoe (16th, 21:54.8), Alyssa Bienfang (18th, 21:58.8) and Liz Hogan (19th, 22:03.2) rounded out the rest of the Zags' top 10.
"The race played out very much the way we thought it would," said women's coach Jake Stewart. "Kristen again showed herself to be one of the best runners in the region. Sadie had an outstanding day raising her for 6K and running with so much confidence. That was Alicia's best race since she's been at Gonzaga and I feel confident that there's more there for her.
"Really pleased with Rosina — for a true freshman to run that way is awesome! And then Brittney is just so reliable and steady for us. She had a really great day as well. Definitely some things that we need to clean up, some aspects of the day we're really pleased with but we walk out of here having a much better sense of where we're at moving forward then we did a week ago."
In the men's 8K, Zags swept the top seven a week after sweeping the top ten at Clash of the Inland Northwest to earn GU's third-straight men's Cougar Classic title. Radosevich crossed the finish line with Guermali, Jake Perrin and Wil Smith, who all clocked in just a tenth of a second behind him at 24:10.5. Behind them were Riley Moore (24:20.2), Evan Bates (24:29.9) and Ben Brown (24:30.6). Jackson Lyne (11th, 24:37.1), Dominic Arce (12th, 24:39.1) and Laird Cooper (15th, 24:42.2) made it ten Zags in the top 15.
The last time GU runners competed on the Colfax course was the 2019 NCAA Regionals, where the men's squad placed a program-best sixth.
"Today, we learned more about our ourselves," said GU men's coach Pat Tyson. "It's still early — it's September 10th for gosh sakes. We're still about a good solid seven weeks until conference, but this is as promising as it gets."
The GU squads split up next week to hit the road for races against nationally-ranked competition, with the men racing in the Oregon-hosted Bill Dellinger Invitational in Eugene, Ore. on Thursday and the women heading to Minneapolis, Minn. for the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by Minnesota. Check GoZags.com for up-to-date results, recaps and more.
