Zags Run at WCC Championships Friday

Friday, November 1

Los Angeles, CA

10 a.m.

Gonzaga University

West Coast Conference Championships

10/30/2019 1:57:00 PM | Cross Country

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Gonzaga men ride national ranking into postseason

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Gonzaga women's and men's cross country teams open their postseasons at the 2019 West Coast Conference Championships Friday.

The Zags will run against the top competition from the conference at the Woodley Lakes Golf Course in Van Nuys, Calif. The women's 6,000-meter race begins at 10 a.m. Pacific Time, followed by the men's 8K race at 11 a.m.

On the men's side, four-time defending champion BYU enters the race at No. 2 for the third consecutive year. The Cougars, who are seeking their fifth consecutive WCC crown, earned 316 points in the latest USTFCCCA Poll (13 out of first place) behind two-time defending NCAA Champion NAU. Portland checks in at No. 12, while Gonzaga is ranked in the top-30 for the second straight season, appearing at No. 29.

On the women's side, No. 4 BYU leads the charge. The Cougars are the defending WCC Champions.

This will be the 35th women's race. No. 4 BYU, who has registered three team titles and a runner-up showing at the Pre-Nationals Invitational enters as the favorite. Four teams have won championships in the last six races: Portland (2016), Gonzaga (2015), BYU (2014, 18) and San Francisco (2013, 17).

This will be the 45th men's race, and this season marks the third straight year that both BYU and Portland enter the championship ranked in the top-15 nationally. The Cougars and Pilots were both in the top-five in 2017 and again in 2018. The Pilots and Cougars have combined to win the last 40 WCC Championships, highlighted by an unprecedented 32 consecutive by Portland (1979-2010). No. 29 Gonzaga ranks in the nation's top-30 programs while Pepperdine is No. 14 in the West Region.

Last year, James Mwaura's phenomenal freshman season continued with an All-West Coast Conference finish at the 2018 WCC Championships. The Tacoma, Wash. native became the program's first-ever West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year following the race. Mwaura paced the No. 26 Zag men to a third-place team finish, with a ninth-place individual finish in Oakland, Calif. He crossed the line at 23:57.7, after running with the front pack for the majority of the race. It was the seventh straight season GU has placed in the top-four. Peter Hogan had a second team All-WCC finish in 13th place.

Aimee Piercy paced the GU women with a 29th place finish. She finished with a time of 22:33.1 over the 6K course. As a team, the Zag women placed ninth.

BYU took the women's team title. The No. 9 Cougars tallied 27 points to take their first title since 2014, their lowest Championship score as a WCC member. Erica Birk-Jarvis, a two-time WCC Runner of the Week in 2018, finished in 19:45.60 for the win. No. 19 Portland placed five runners in the top 20, led by Lauren LaRocco's runner-up finish. The Pilots placed second as a team, followed by San Francisco and Loyola Marymount.

The BYU men won their fourth consecutive West Coast Conference Championship. The Cougars posted a score of 21 points with six in the top-10. Perennial power No. 5 Portland posted its fourth straight runner-up showing, led by Nick Hauger's individual title. Hauger posted a time of 23:20.8 for a convincing win against runner-up Connor McMillan at 23:23.0 who led a quartet of Cougars across the finish line.

Gonzaga Entries
Alicia Anderson
Natasha Bernal
Alyssa Bienfang
Paxton Depoe
Makenna Edwards
Grace Fahrney
Claire Gillett
Brittney Hansen
Liz Hogan
Ally Legard
Claire Manley
Emily Phelps
Jenna Rogers

Dominic Arce
Phillip Fishburn
Yacine Guermali
Ben Hogan
Peter Hogan
Jaxon Mackie
Luke Mason
Cullen McEachern
Riley Moore
James Mwaura
Ciaran O'Leary
Jake Perrin
Matthew Roberts
Hunter Simpson
Sammy Truax