Gonzaga University
Sundodger Invitational
Boyle, Lloyd, Volcheff Pace Bulldog Harriers
9/18/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 18, 2010
Complete Results in PDF Format 
SEATTLE, Wash. - Gonzaga University's men's and women's cross country team each finished fourth at the Sundodger Invitational Saturday, and some new young faces performed well for the Bulldogs to compliment the veterans.
The men finished fourth with 140 points, host University of Washington capturing the men's title with 27 points as the Huskies almost made it a clean sweep. On the women's side the Bulldogs had 108 points, the third-ranked Huskies winning with 22 points as their top five runners placed in the top seven spots.
On the men's side, Chris Boyle continues to emerge as one of the top runners in Bulldog history. The Seattle junior returned to his hometown and finished 16th overall in 24:35.98 over the 8K Lincoln Park course in West Seattle.
"Boyle was only thirty seconds off the leader. He's evolving into a special runner," Gonzaga head coach Pat Tyson said.
Max O'Donoghue-McDonald of Washington was the individual winner in the men's invitational in 24:03.63.
But Tyson wasn't happy with the gap behind Boyle.
"The gap isn't what we want. It was nearly a minute from Chris to Robert Walgren, but Robert took some risks and was our number two man today," Tyson said of the Anchorage, Alaska, freshman who finished 36th overall in 25:28.78.
Tate Kelly, Christian Burger, Matt Bejar and Brad Kachigan were all grouped from 44th through 48th place overall and all were anywhere from two to four seconds apart.
"We have that group that's happy to be in the top seven (on our team), but they need to start breaking loose a little bit and getting out of their comfort zone if we want to be in the top four in the West Coast Conference," Tyson said. "We're still learning who we are and where we're headed. We have some depth and I hope these guys will take some risks and run twenty to thirty seconds faster."
The women finished fourth, nine points behind WCC foe Pepperdine University in third place.
"We didn't come close enough to beating Pepperdine," Tyson said of the women. "We beat some division one teams today, but we still have to get our ladies in the top 10 or 12 overall. But the Huskies may be making that difficult as the third-ranked team in the country."
Kayla Lloyd and Laura Volcheff were the top two finishers for the Bulldogs, Lloyd placing 22nd and Volcheff 23rd overall in 22:11.16 and 22:11.76, respectively.
"They weren't in the top twenty, but we need that to be successful," Tyson said. "Pepperdine had two runners in the top five and then they drop off and that's where we catch up with them a little bit."
Lindsay Flanagan of Washington won the women's invitational in 20:34.70.
One runner Tyson was excited about was redshirt freshman Emily Thomas who finished 29th overall.
"Emily is going to be a steady top seven runner for us," Tyson said. "And Lauren Bergam was right behind her running fourth for our team. Brenn Donnelly coming off some injuries was our fifth runner today and Brittany O'Regan was also coming off some injuries and was our sixth runner. Brenn has a lot more room to improve and will move up there with Kayla and Laura, and Brittany can be one of our top three runners."
Tyson said his team is gearing for the WCC Championship.
"We're six weeks away from the WCC, and we've got planet of time and we're not going to panic. We're getting experience," Tyson said.
The Bulldogs will run the middle meet of three straight weeks Saturday at the Erik Anderson/Runner's Soul Invitational at Plantes Ferry in the Spokane Valley. But Tyson said he will sit some runners.
"We're definitely going to keep Boyle out of Plantes Ferry but probably run everybody else (on the men's side) because we need the experience," Tyson said. "We'll hold Lloyd, Volcheff and Donnelly out next week (for the women), and we'll see how Brittany is and might hold her out. We'll run the younger ladies and give them a chance to shine."
