BOSTON, Mass. – Gonzaga track & field opened their 2024-25 indoor season at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener inside Boston University's Track & Tennis Center on Saturday.
 
For the Zag women, it was Ireland Robertson who highlighted their opening day as the senior won her 3000-meter heat with a program third-fastest 9:28.36 (58th overall) finish. Prior to Robertson's heat win, Willow Collins was the first Bulldog on the track in the second-fastest heat, placing 44th overall in 9:19.86. She was just seven seconds off of her PR in her 2024-25 debut.
 
Three days after winning her second straight West Coast Conference Runner of the Year honor to cap her final cross country season, Rosina Machu made her season debut in the second-fastest 5000-meter heat on Saturday. In perhaps the biggest event of the Danville Season Opener where some of the nation's top distance runners competed, Machu placed 26th overall with a time of 15:44.14, also seven seconds off of her PR that she ran at last year's season opener in Boston.
 
For the Zag men, Drew Kolodge and Wil Smith were the first to hit the track this season, racing in the final event of the day. The men's 5000-meter also feature the nation's best distance runners, including back-to-back NCAA Cross Country champion Graham Blanks.
 
While Blanks finished as the overall winner on Saturday, Smith and Kolodge made Gonzaga history in each of their heats. First, Smith placed 11th in heat three (44th overall) with a time of 13:42.09, the third-fastest indoor 5000-meter time in program history. Then, Kolodge placed second in heat eight (100th overall) in 13:57.21, the fourth-fastest time in program history.
 
With those finishes, the number of Gonzaga men to record sub-14-minute indoor 5000-meter times is four. Smith and Kolodge join Yacine Guermali and James Mwaura, who each recorded sub-14 times at the Danville Season Opener in 2022. Guermali's 13:33.99 remains the all-time top mark.

UP NEXT
Gonzaga will race one more time in 2024, competing at the Spokane Invitational on Dec. 14 in their first of six meets at The Podium this season.
 
Full results of the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener can be found HERE.