SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga' men's and women's cross country squads will enter the season with their best USTFCCA Regional Rankings in history, with GU's men's squad a program-best 27th in the national team rankings released Monday.
Both teams are ranked in the top ten in the West Region, with the Zag men coming in at fifth and the women ninth, respectively.
The GU men's squad's No. 27 ranking in the initial preseason poll matches the Bulldogs' 27th-place finish in its first NCAA Nationals appearance as a team in program history in the spring, where Yacine Guermali finished 55th overall to lead the Zags. With nine of its top ten runners from the spring season returning this fall, GU slated behind Pac-12 programs in Oregon, Stanford, Washington as well as WCC rival Portland in the West. Of those top four, Stanford finished fifth and Portland 21st at the 2021 NCAA Championships, with Washington and Oregon opting not to compete in favor of focusing on track.
The men's squad also was slotted for No. 13 nationally in FloTrack's initial preseason rankings — another program record.
"Rankings are always a nice feather in the cap to have joined the top 25 caliber of teams that are chasing their berths to the NCAA Championships," said GU Director of Cross Country/Track & Field and Head Men's Coach Pat Tyson. "With over 300 teams in the country, No. 13 is a pretty cool thing. It is a tribute to this team to show how hard they have worked."
GU's women's runners are coming off a spring that saw Kristen Garcia become the first female Zag runner to qualify for Nationals since 2015, when GU qualified as a team. The Bulldogs return seven of their top ten from the spring and are set to compete against high-profile national rivals in the Roy Griak Invitational and Nuttycombe Invitational this fall.
"Our preseason ranking is a nice reflection of the continual progress this program is making forward," said head women's coach Jake Stewart. "Being ranked in the top 10 in one of the most competitive regions in the country is nice recognition for our team. Now the goal is to improve upon it by November."
Both squads kick off the fall season on Friday at the Clash of the Inland Northwest in Cheney, Wash., a competition both won in its most recent iteration in 2019. A segment of the GU women's team will also be competing Saturday in the USF Invitational in San Francisco, Calif.
