Eight Zags Harriers Named Academic All-Conference

SAN MATEO, Calif. — Following the conclusion of the 2022 fall season, a pair of Gonzaga Women's Cross Country runners picked up West Coast Conference First Team All-Academic honors and six more GU runners on both the men's and women's side were named to the Honorable Mention list, the league announced Tuesday.

Junior Alicia Anderson and Grad Senior Kristen Garcia were among 10 runners on the WCC All-Academic First Team, making Gonzaga one of three schools with multiple representatives on the list.

Alyssa Bienfang and Makenna Edwards also picked up honorable mention honors, and on the men's side, Riley Moore, Wil Smith, Kyle Radosevich and Dominic Arce joined them with honorable mention nods of their own.

At the conclusion of each athletic season, the WCC selects an all-academic squad for each WCC-sponsored sport. To be considered, a student-athlete must maintain at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average, while also being a significant contributor to his team and in at least their second year at their school.

Anderson, who touts a 4.0 while majoring in Civil Engineering, was an NCAA West Region Quarterfinalist in the 1500m and Semifinalist in the 5,000m last spring, and finished 21st at the WCC Championships this fall before finishing 68th at NCAA West Regionals to help lift the Zags to a seventh-place finish. The honor is the second time Anderson has made the All-WCC Academic list, and her first time making the First Team after earning an honorable mention nod last season.

Garcia's inclusion makes it three straight years that she's finished in the Top 10 at WCC Championships and followed it up with academic honors, finishing a career-best sixth-place at WCC's this fall and earning All-West Region honors with a 17th-place individual finish. The grad student carries a 4.0 GPA in her Organizational Leadership MA coursework after wrapping up undergrad with a 3.56 in Political Science.

Bienfang (3.97 GPA, Biology) and Edwards (3.78 GPA, Biochemistry) added to the Zags' haul, both making the All-Academic team for the second year in a row.

Arce (3.88 GPA, MA in Organizational Leadership), Moore (3.4 GPA, Business Administration), Smith (3.29 GPA, human Physiology) and Radosevich (3.57 GPA, Business Administration) added four more to that total, with Radosevich and Moore both earning the second academic honor of their careers. Smith was the only non-BYU runner to earn All-WCC First Team honors, and he and Radosevich both followed that up with All-West Region honors en route to a program-best second-place team finish. Smith (59th, 29:50.4), Radosevich (133rd, 30:27.8) and Moore (203rd, 31:05.5) were also crucial point-scorers in the Zags' program-best 13th-place finish at NCAA National Championships.

2022 WCC WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY ALL-ACADEMIC FIRST TEAM

Name	School	Class	GPA	Major
Alicia Anderson	Gonzaga	Sr.	4.00	Civil Engineering
Baneet Bains	San Francisco	Sr.	3.93	Communications
Aubrey Frentheway	BYU	Sr.	3.58	Mathematics Education
Kristen Garcia	Gonzaga	Gr.	4.00	Organizational Leadership
McKenna Lee-Hansen	BYU	Sr.	3.98	Strategic Management
Abbey Meck	Santa Clara	Sr.	4.00	Educational Leadership
Laura Pellicoro	Portland	Jr.	3.63	Biology
Ruby Smee	San Francisco	Jr.	3.58	English
Rayna Stanziano	Saint Mary's	Jr.	3.92	English
Zoe Wassell	San Francisco	Gr.	3.90	Sports Management

WCC Women's Cross Country Honorable Mention

Gonzaga

Alyssa Bienfang

Makenna Edwards

2022 WCC MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY ALL-ACADEMIC FIRST TEAM

Name	School	Class	GPA	Major
Ed Buck	San Francisco	Gr.	3.75	Chemistry
Casey Clinger	BYU	Sr.	3.82	Business Management
Leo Donlea	Portland	Gr.	3.95	Business Administration
Johnathan Flint	Pepperdine	Jr.	4.00	Finance
Joey Nokes	BYU	So.	3.73	Exercise Science
Kenneth Rooks	BYU	So.	3.96	Civil Engineering
Nicholas Russell	Santa Clara	Sr.	3.567	Public Health Science & Psychology
Creed Thompson	BYU	So.	3.88	Computer Science
Davin Thompson	BYU	So.	3.81	Computer Science
Aidan Troutner	BYU	Jr.	3.72	Business
Christoph Wallner	LMU	Gr.	4.00	Systems Engineering and MBA

WCC Men's Cross Country Honorable Mention

Gonzaga