SPOKANE, Wash. – The Gonzaga women's and men's cross country programs start the 2018 season at the Clash of the Inland Northwest in Moscow, Idaho, Friday.
 
The annual meet has been a season-opener for the Zags, Washington State, Idaho and Eastern Washington. Other teams that will be racing include Lewis-Clark State, Whitman, Montana, and Whitworth. The meet rotates a host site each year around the Inland Northwest.
 
The meet will be the debut of Jake Stewart as the head coach for the Gonzaga women. He was tabbed head coach in July, after spending the last six seasons as the men's cross country head coach at Illinois.
 
"Our goals going into the fall are straight-forward," Stewart said. "We want to collectively improve, improve the way we train, compete, take care of ourselves, improve on every aspect. If we do those things, we will have the outcomes at the end of the year we want to have. There's talent in this group. I've been really impressed with how the group came back to campus fit and ready to go! That can be challenging during any type of transition, but the women held themselves accountable this summer and got the work done. We've got a core group of athletes coming back this fall with experience running at the conference and regional level.
 
"Aimee Piercy put the work in this summer and we're excited to see what she can do when the racing starts. Ally Legard, Kelly Gilbert, Claire Gillett and Monica Ripple all have had a good opening couple weeks to the fall season, and I'm excited to see what's in store for them this fall. Lauren Bourgeois and Katherine Gustafson are both getting healthy, and their fitness will continue to advance with their focus on the end of the season. And we're really excited about a couple newcomers as well, Lauren Haas and Jordan McPhee both can have an impact on our group."
 
Pat Tyson is back for his 11^th season as the leader of the GU men. He brings back an experienced group that was slated ninth in the preseason West Region poll.
 
"I'm really excited for our Gonzaga Harriers to open the season down at the University of Idaho's Golf Course Friday," Tyson said. "Our 20 entered men represent the most talented depth team in GU history. Pure freshman James Mwaura, redshirt freshmen Yacine Guermali, Luke Mason, and Cullen McEachern look strong. Add in veterans Kellen Manley, Bennett Gagnon, Kyle Thompson and Scott Kopczynski, and I get excited for this fall's cross country season. Juniors Sammy Truax and Stefan Bradley look really sharp and the same for sophomores Ben Hogan and Alex Heffelfinger. There will be potentially others in the mix! We have a lot of time to put together a deep nine athletes for the West Coast Conference Championships, which is nine weeks away."
 
The Bulldogs have appeared in the Clash of the Inland Northwest in each of the last eight seasons. Last season, Jake Perrin's first place finish led the GU men to the team title. Perrin's first-ever collegiate win came in a time of 18:35.56, edging out teammate Ben Hogan's 18:35.97 finish over the 6,000-meter course in Missoula, Mont. The Zag men placed six runners in the top-10, and 11 in the top-20.
 
Jordan Thurston led the Zag women with a fifth place finish on the 4,000-meter course. The Gonzaga women won two of their three duals, beating out Eastern Washington (25-33) and Montana (29-30), but falling to Idaho (19-42). Claire Manley came in 13th place at 14:52.31, while Jenna Rogers was 17th with a time of 15:04.54.
 
"The 6,000-meter race will be three times around a 2,000-meter loop that will have some hills to make it more challenging," Tyson said. "The hosts, Idaho, enters the meet ranked No. 14 in the tough NCAA West Region. We want to peak at the right time for the conference championships and regionals. Still, we want to use this meet as a nice tempo. We will certainly not take the entered teams too lightly. Idaho is well coached and on the rise."
 
"We'll go into this week's meet at Idaho with our goals being to get a solid opening effort in, get in the uniform, get back into our competitive routines and move forward," Stewart said. "We'll hold some of the group out, and they'll get a chance to open in two weeks at Washington State. This week will be a great opportunity for us to get a better sense of where we're at fitness-wise and help us plan accordingly for the next month."
 
The women's 4K race begins at 6 p.m., followed by the men's 6K race at 6:30 p.m. Results will be available on GoZags.com after the event.