SPOKANE, Wash. -- After earning its first-ever team Nationals berth in a condensed spring season unlike any other, Gonzaga men's cross country is running it back with largely the same core of runners, no longer unfamiliar with expectations of national success.
GU returns nine of its top ten runners from a team that unseated perennial power Portland at the WCC Championships en route to a nationals race that saw Yacine Guermali post the best finish in program history (55th place, 31:03.0), including two-time nationals qualifier James Mwaura and 2020 All-WCC selection Will Smith, who placed 11th at conference championships as a freshman in the spring. All three runners were named to the WCC Preseason Team Tuesday.
A resulting top-five ranking in the West Region and a No. 27 national mark in the USTFCCA preseason polls released this week to go with a No. 13 ranking nationally by FloRunning gives weight to the idea that those expectations are rising for Tyson and co. GU was picked to finish third in the WCC behind BYU (nine first-place votes) and Portland (one first-place vote), which combined for the other seven runners on the preseason list.
"It's always a nice feather in the cap to have joined the top 25 kind of teams that are chasing their berths to the NCAA Championships," Tyson said. "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."
The Zags' season starts Friday at Clash of the Inland Northwest in Cheney, Wash., a six-kilometer race that GU has won the last three times the Bulldogs have competed. 
"Our goal is to go and have a fun race but get the job done," Tyson said. "James Mwaura will sit out this one, but everyone else will go out for a workout race and get ready for the next one the next week."
Following Clash is the Cougar Classic, another race GU dominated in its last appearance headlined by a first-place finish from Mwaura.
Other standout races in the Zags' first fall season since 2019 include the prestigious Nuttycombe Invitational in Madison, Wisc., and the Bill Dellinger Invite hosted by Oregon in Eugene, both against high-profile national competition that GU will need to compete with in order to secure enough points for a Nationals return. 
"Who's going to be our eighth runner going into Nuttycombe? Who's going to be our seven competing at NCAA West? Who's going to be our 70th nationals? There's a lot we need to figure out," Tyson said. "So anytime you get an opportunity to get a jersey on to reference, it gives us coaches more data that we can take in, because we have a very deep team.
"Are we 10 deep? Are we 12 deep? Are we 15 deep? It's to be determined."
Clash of the Inland Northwest is set for 10 a.m. start. Check GoZags.com for up-to-date results and performance lists after races conclude.