CONCORD, Calif. — Led by a second-place finish by James Mwaura and a program-record three runners in the top ten , Gonzaga men's cross country took second place as a team at West Coast Conference Championships Friday at Newhall Community Park.
A 50-point outing from the Bulldogs placed them behind overall winner BYU while topping nationally-ranked Portland for the third straight race, with a 59-second spread between their finishers. 50 points is the lowest point total GU has ever earned at a WCC Championships and the best since BYU joined the conference, and the Bulldogs' point total has improved every year since 2016.
"It was a day you had to really run with guts — normally you have to anyway, but at conference, everyone there is going for you," said Head Coach Pat Tyson. "[Third-place finisher] Portland was coming after us and ran really well, so we beat a really solid Portland team today."
The men's team finish also comes on the heels of a second-place finish by the GU women's squad, making it the first time both teams finished in the top two at conference championships since 1995.
Mwaura crossed the finish line with a time of 23:17.1, pushing reigning NCAA champion Conner Mantz of BYU for much of the race before a late surge from Mantz brought him his third consecutive conference championship.
"James has been training really hard," Tyson said. "He battled hard today, he just happened to go up against the guy who may be the best runner in America. James always puts himself in the mix, and Conner has worked extremely hard to win that today."
Behind him, Cullen McEachern (23:43.3) and Wil Smith (23:44.3) finished sixth and seventh respectively to earn All-WCC honors and make it three Zags in the top ten.
"Coming in all of us were pretty confident in our ability to pack up; we're one of those teams that's able to feed off each other really well," McEachern said. "That was kind of the plan going in team-wise. We know guys like James are going to go out and compete for the win, and we just have to be able to support him as well as we can."
The rest of GU's runners all finished in the top 50 — Kyle Radosevich (16th, 24:04.7), Evan Bates (19th, 24:16.4), Dominic Arce (20th, 24:16.7), Riley Moore (25th, 24:26.4), Jake Perrin (31st, 24:38.3), Ben Hogan (37th, 25:05.4) and Jaxon Mackie (47th, 25:29.3) rounded out the point-getters to anchor the second-place finish.
"It's really important for us to kind of step up in those times when you're battling with another team like that," McEachern said. "It's just that team mentality of understanding no one's going to step up for you. You've got to do it for yourself and for the guys."
Up Next
The Zags' postseason continues in two weeks at the NCAA West Regional Championships in Sacramento, Calif. on Nov. 12. CheckGoZags.com and follow @ZagRunning on Twitter and Instagram for race updates, coverage and more.
