Large Contingent of Zags Head to Pullman

Gonzaga's senior student-athletes were honored at the Evening of Excellence banquet.

2/5/2015 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field

MEET SCHEDULE | HEAT SHEETS | MEET INFORMATION

SPOKANE, Wash. - For the first time in the four-year history of the program, the Gonzaga women's and men's track teams will compete in an indoor meet at Washington State University.

The Bulldogs are sending 33 student-athletes to the Cougar Indoor meet Saturday. The meet, in its 13^th year, is inside WSU's Indoor Practice Facility, which features a full NCAA 200-meter track, triple jump pits, pole vault lanes, shot and disc arc, and a 60-sprint track.

"Washington State's Indoor facility called ‘The Bubble' is a nicely laid out tartan 200 meter flat oval," Director of Gonzaga's track program Pat Tyson said. "Although shorter than the UW and Idaho tracks, it plays out pretty will. It makes it easy to know where you stand with lap splits! Accurate splits will easily be called thus the athlete has a clearer feel for their race pace. It is a nice venue to compete."

Gonzaga had a successful showing at the University of Washington Invitational last weekend. Andy Phillips broke the school's indoor 800-meter record, while Willie Milam ran a school record in the indoor mile. Troy Fraley, Colin O'Neil, and Kyle Branch all finished with top five times on the Gonzaga all-time lists in the 3,000 meters.

The Zags had two women compete in the meet. Emily Anderson finished the 800 meters with a time of 2:19.83. She came in sixth in her heat. Shelby Mills placed seventh in her section of the 3,000 meters. She crossed the line at 9:55.74. This week, GU has 16 women competing in Pullman.

"We are looking for this group of athletes to continue to develop so that next year we take even more women to those meets at the UW," Gonzaga women's track Head Coach Patty Ley said. "We will ‘rest' those athletes from last week, but bring down Amelia (Evans) to race a mile after having been sick last week to help her get back on tempo.

"It will be fun since we have both Evans women (Amelia and Olivia) and both Frahers (Alison and Claren) in the mile. Julie Henling and Christina Winters are ready for nice breakthroughs in the 3,000, as is Molly Stroosma in the 800."

The Gonzaga women have eight participants in the 800 meters, including Maggie Jones who had a great showing in her last meet. At the Idaho Collegiate two weeks ago, Jones won the women's mile and 3,000-meter races. The senior eased to a first place finish in the mile with a time of 5:09.12, nearly 25 seconds in front of second place. Later in the day, she crossed the line at 10:16.44 to win the 3,000 meters.

"As much as (Jones) has improved, the potential for some really great athletes (sub 2:10) in the 800 probably make an overall win a longshot," Ley said. "But, we're hoping for at least a heat win or competitive effort and a PR. We won't know the rest of the field until tomorrow, but this should be a nice meet to compete hard, drop those times a couple more seconds and keep advancing!"

Zac Garrard returns to the men's 800-meter field after having a great race at the Idaho Collegiate. He ran the fourth fastest time in program history. The sophomore finished third in the event with a time of 1:55.37.

"The WSU Cougar Indoor is an opportunity to develop our young runners," Tyson said. "Much like the Idaho Invitational, many of our athletes who did not participate in UW, get a chance to test their fitness level. I know the 35 men and women athletes entered are excited to get in a competition. Division 1 teams Idaho, Eastern Washington, and host Washington State are using this meet for the same reason. Mix in some very good athletes from Trinity Western (British Columbia), Western Oregon, and several other non D-1 schools, there will definitely will be some decent times posted.

"We have a couple of our better runners using this meet as a workout. Robert Walgren and Ned Fischer are competing in both the mile and 3,000, and sophomore red-shirt Conor McCandless coming off some long term injuries, is entered in both the mile and 3,000, but we'll decide which one later this week. Freshman Brandon Pollard, sophomore Zac Garrard, and both juniors Ian Goldizen and junior Danny Lunder will drop down for some speed and compete in the 800 meters."

The two-day Cougar Indoor begins Friday with multi-event competition and some field events. It will be the second of two meets inside the WSU Indoor Facility this season. Eight Zags open the meet for Gonzaga in the men's mile at 10:15 a.m. The women's 4x400-meter relay is the final event of the day for GU at 4:35 p.m. Results will be available on GoZags.com following the meet.