STANFORD, Calif. - The Gonzaga men's and women's cross country teams finished their seasons with a strong showing at the NCAA West Regional on Saturday on the Stanford Golf Course.
The GU men finished 10th as a team with top-40 finishes from Troy Fraley and Nick Roche, while the women were 16th as a team with Amelia Evans and Shelby Mills in the top 40.
Men's head coach Pat Tyson's squad entered the meet with lofty goals and came away with a solid team finish. Roche and Fraley spent their time in the lead pack with Roche mixing it up at the front. The pair came across the finish line together in 30 minutes, 17 seconds for 10,000 meters with Fraley nipping Roche for 36th.
"They were bold today," Tyson said. "Nick put himself up at the front, and Troy wasn't far back. They paid the price a little, but I was proud of the way they went after it. Overall, we had higher goals than we finished today."
Colin O'Neil and Kyle Branch worked their way up through the traffic to each finish in the top 75 of the race, which featured 192 runners. O'Neil crossed in 30:45 for 62nd and Branch was 71st at 30:56. Ian Goldizen rounded out the top five in 87th with a time of 31:13.
"We had five guys in the top 90 and two guys in the top 40," Tyson said. "We avenged a loss to Washington State, who beat us earlier this year. It was a good day, and maybe the best race team-wise that we've had in a big meet in school history. We stayed under our goal of 300 points and beat some Pac-12 teams. A good day for the men, but we're not satisfied with where we finished."
On the women's side, just like they had done all year, Evans and Mills led the way. Evans placed 32nd overall, covering the 6,000-meter course in 21:10. Mills was just five seconds back in 40th at 21:15.
"Early in the season, it didn't look like we would get to this point and be as far along as we were today," head coach Patty Ley said. "I was pretty happy with that. Shelby and Amelia up front were fantastic. They are hungry now, and they looked great.
Laura Tuthill took over as the Zags No. 3 runner on the day, placing 74th with a time of 21:47. Erin Bergmann battled through for a 120th-place finish at 22:27 and Zoe Urcadez came in fifth for the Zags at 22:51 in 147th place out of 230 runners.
"I could see it coming with Laura these last few weeks, she's really run herself back to where she was and her confidence has exploded," Ley said. "Overall, a good solid day. Good things happened. We had a couple people fighting some little things, and with this crew without their best was still able to turn in a good performance."
The West Regional wraps the cross country season for the Zags. Track and field will begin in January for most the runners.
