Busy Weekend Ahead for Gonzaga Cross Country

Saturday, October 13

Madison, Wis.

9:30 AM

Gonzaga University

NCAA Pre Nationals (Men)

10/9/2018 12:07:00 PM | Cross Country

Zags split squads between three races Saturday

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Gonzaga women's and men's cross country teams split their squads between three different events Saturday.

The Zag men will take their top seven runners to the NCAA Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wis., while the women send their top seven to the Santa Clara University Bronco Invitational. A number of GU runners will also run in the Inland Empire Championships in Lewiston, Idaho.

The Pre-Nationals serve as a pre-cursor for the national championships. The race will be run on the Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course, the same course that will host the national championships. This year's meet is open invitation to all Division I teams. The Pre-Nationals will consist of two evenly-seeded races per gender, the "Cardinal" and "White" races. A maximum of 35 teams in each of the seeded races for a total of 70 teams.

The Bulldog men were selected into the Cardinal Race, which features No. 1 Northern Arizona, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 5 Stanford, No. 9 Colorado State, No. 11 Colorado, No. 13 Oregon, No. 15 Southern Utah, No. 20 Michigan and No. 22 Ole Miss. The Cardinal Race features West Region ranked teams; Stanford (2), Oregon (5), Gonzaga (8), Cal Poly (10) and California (12). The Zags are the lone West Coast Conference team in the Cardinal Race.

Running against some of the country's best at last year's NCAA Pre-Nationals, Max Kaderabek finished with the seventh-fastest time over an 8,000-meter course in Gonzaga men's cross country history. Kaderabek's time of 24:08.9 placed 60th in the 292-runner field in Louisville, Ky. The Zag men placed 16th out of 41 programs in the race.

This year, the Bulldogs are sending James Mwaura, Kyle Thompson, Yacine Guermali, Ciaran O'Leary, Kellen Manley, Bennett Gagnon and Peter Hogan. The GU men are appearing in the national poll for the first-time in program history, with three votes, after winning their first three races of the season.

The Gonzaga women will be represented by Lauren Bourgeois, Molly Foster, Lauren Haas, Caroline McCarthy, Jordan McPhee, Aimee Piercy and Monica Ripple at the SCU Bronco Invitational in Sunnyvale, Calif. The race will be a 6K at Baylands Regional Park.

The Inland Empire Classic's field includes Lewis-Clark State College, Eastern Oregon, Carroll College, Rocky Mountain College, Univ. of Providence, Montana Western, Washington State, Idaho, Montana, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Seattle, Seattle Pacific, Northwest Nazarene, Calgary, Spokane Falls and the College of Southern Idaho.

The races will be run at the Lewiston Orchards once again this year in Lewiston, Idaho. This is the eighth appearance in the event for Gonzaga. The Zag men won the team titles in 2014 and 2015. Last year, Claire Manley and Kellen Manley paced the GU women and men to solid finishes at the Inland Empire Classic. Claire Manley completed the 5K course at the Lewiston Orchards with a time of 17:59.3. She placed 12th in the 129-runner field. The Bulldogs won three of their four dual matchups against Div. I competition. On the men's side, Kellen Manley crossed the line at 24:27.1 in 12th place.

The men's race in Madison begins at 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time. Live video will be available from FloTrack on GoZags.com. The women's race at the Santa Clara University Bronco Invitational also begins at 9:30. The Inland Empire Classic's women's 5K starts at 10 a.m., with the men's 8K after at 10:45.

Santa Clara Bronco Invitational:
Lauren Bourgeois
Molly Foster
Lauren Haas
Caroline McCarthy
Jordan McPhee
Aimee Piercy
Monica Ripple

NCAA Pre-Nationals:
James Mwaura
Kyle Thompson
Yacine Guermali
Ciaran O'Leary
Kellen Manley
Bennett Gagnon
Peter Hogan

Inland Empire Championships:
MEN:
Dominic Arce
Stefan Bradley
Phillip Fishburn
Alex Heffelfinger
Ben Hogan
Scott Kopczynski
Luke Mason
Javier Munoz-Maines
Sam McCloughan
Cullen McEachern
Brandon Pollard
Jonah Sandoval
Hunter Simpson
Daniel Thompson
William Thompson
Sammy Truax
Mason Villarma
Graham Wendle

WOMEN:
Mary Cate Babcock
Alex Cerveny
Ariel Evans
Olivia Evans
Emma Flood
Kelly Gilbert
Claire Gillett
Megan Glenski
Morgan Greene
Katherine Gustafson
Amanda Kiefer
Emma Morris
Brazee Smith
Brianna Vasquez