ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Gonzaga men's cross country team competed in the 37th Roy Griak Invitational on Friday at Les Bolstad Golf Course, their first time at the event. The Men's Gold 8K race kicked off the eight-race lineup at 8 a.m. PST and featured 18 schools and 174 individual runners.
The Bulldogs finished second in the team standings with 80 team points behind 29th ranked Cal Baptist (46). New Mexico took third with 110 points, and ninth ranked Portland took fourth with 111. This marks the highest finish by a Gonzaga program at the event, knocking off the Zag women's fifth place finish in 2019.
"Our men ran with so much grit on a tough 8K course," head coach
Pat Tyson said. "
Wil Smith,
Kyle Radosevich,
Drew Kolodge all in the top 20!"
Wil Smith led the Zags' second place team finish with a second place finish of his own, crossing the line with a time of 24:00.4. Smith jumped four spots after the 5K checkpoint to snag the second spot on the podium.
Kyle Radosevich cracked the Top 10 with a seventh place finish (24:20.9), moving up three places after the 5K mark.
Drew Kolodge was the next Zag runner to finish, placing 16th with a time of 24:39.7.
Bryce Cerkowniak placed 24th (24:46.5), and
Cooper Laird place 31st (24:56.7) to round out the point scoring for Gonzaga.
Michael Maiorano (45th, 25:13.7),
Evan Bates (55th, 25:21.2),
Paul Talens (66th, 25:34.2) and
Riley Moore (71st, 25:41.7) completed the field of attached runners for GU, each finishing in the top half of the 174 individual runners of the 8K flight.
"An important 24th for
Bryce Cerkowniak and 31st for
Cooper Laird," Tyson noted. "But we've got a long season ahead and more work to do!"
Cal Baptist was led by four Top 10 finishes including a fourth place finish from Arturs Medveds (24:10.8) and a sixth place finish from Valentin Soca (24:17.4). New Mexico's Habtom Samuel took first with a 23:36.4 winning time to pace the team's 110-point, third place finish.
UP NEXT
The Zag men will take a short 2.5 hour drive to Walla Walla, Wash. for the Whitman Invitational on Sat. Sept 30.
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