Gonzaga University
Bill Dellinger Invitational (Men Only)
No. 25 Men's Cross Country tops No. 19 Portland, places second at Dellinger Invite
9/23/2021 6:57:00 PM | Cross Country
Guermali, Mwaura, Smith finish 3-4-5
SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — Gonzaga men's cross country ran a dominant team 8K against some of the West's best squads at the Bill Dellinger Invitational on Thursday evening, knocking off No. 19 Portland and finishing just three points shy of No. 7 Oregon for a second-place finish as a team.
In addition to the Pilots, the Zags outscored Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Washington State, UCLA, Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, Idaho and San Francisco while their top three put up historic numbers.
Yacine Guermali, James Mwaura and Wil Smith finished 3-4-5 behind Oregon's Cooper Teare and Aaron Bienenfeld for the bulk of GU's scoring. Guermali put down a 23:11.3 time for the third-fastest 8K in program history behind his and Mwaura's spring 2021 WCC Championships races. In his first race of the 2021 fall season, Mwaura finished just under five seconds behind Guermali at 23:16.1.
"It was a great effort," said GU head coach Pat Tyson. "I mean, any time you're knocking at the door of a perennial long distance running program and pushing them, that's exciting."
"I thought the kids ran a near perfect race — bunching up early for the most part with smart movement, just helping each other out."
Smith recorded a personal record 23:25.8 for fifth, notching the fifth-fastest 8K performance in program history behind Guermali and Mwaura in the process.
"We all knew we were fit," Smith said. "We were all at altitude this summer training hard, and I think we really believe in ourselves. We honestly didn't put any limits on ourselves. So we kind of wanted to put ourselves out there and say 'Hey, we're here to compete. And we think we're one of the best teams in the nation.'"
Kyle Radosevich (20th, 23:37.9), Cullen McEachern (28th, 23:43.7), Jake Perrin (36th, 24:00.1) and Riley Moore (37th, 24:00.5) rounded out the rest of the Zags' point-scorers.
Up Next
The Zags have another big race up next in two weeks, heading to Madison, Wisc. for the Nuttycombe Invitational on Oct. 15. Hosted by Wisconsin, Nuttycombe will feature 10 teams ranked among the Top 25 nationally by the USTFCCA, giving GU another shot to top Oregon as well as No. 13 Washington and No. 3 Stanford.
