SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Gonzaga women's cross country head coach Jake Stewart was named West Coast Conference Coach of the Year, the league announced on Wednesday. In addition, women's runner and two-time WCC Individual Champion Rosina Machu was named the conference's Runner of the Year for the second-consecutive season.
 
Stewart, in his seventh year at the helm of the GU women's cross country and track teams, captures his first Coach of the Year nod after the Bulldogs won their first West Coast Conference team title since 2015 back in November. Gonzaga would later qualify for just their second-ever NCAA Championships, placing fourth at the West Region Championships on Nov. 15.
 
This season, the Gonzaga women earned six different team titles and reached their highest-ever USTFCCCA ranking, climbing as high as No. 16. Their previous high of 21st also came under Stewart's tutelage back in 2022. In the West Region, GU matched their program high of No. 3, a mark they maintained for three straight weeks.
 
At the West Coast Conference Championships, four of Gonzaga's top five scorers placed in the Top Ten to earn First Team All-WCC honors including Machu, who successfully defended her crown with a winning time of 19:45.3. Their other major performances this season included an eighth-place team finish at Nuttycombe, their highest-ever finish at that event, and a team victory at the top-loaded Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, Texas.
 
Machu's Runner of the Year honor caps an incredibly decorated career for Gonzaga cross country where she earned 13 top ten finishes, including four race wins. She is a three-time First Team All-WCC finisher, a three-time All-West Region finisher, and just the second-ever female cross country All-American in program history, placing 16th at the NCAA Championships in 2023. Last season, Machu became the first runner in Gonzaga history to win WCC Runner of the Year. This season, she becomes the first to win it in consecutive seasons.
 
Machu also holds both program 4-kilometer and 6-kilometer records, improving her 6K record on numerous occasions over the last two seasons.
 
With the end of the 2024 cross country season, Stewart, Machu, and the Zags turn their attention to the 2024-25 indoor and outdoor track seasons. The indoor slate kicks off this Saturday in Boston, Mass., at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, hosted by Boston University.