Men’s Cross Country Ranked 14th in West Region

The Gonzaga men's cross-country team has earned its first ever ranking, coming in at 14^th in the west region. "It's pretty exciting," said junior captain Tate Kelly. "A lot of the alumni and Spokane community have been congratulating us, which gives us a lot of confidence going forward."

The team worked hard in the offseason and the training has paid off. Coach Pat Tyson points to the depth of the team as the reason for the recent success. "We have better runners now. It's hard because we only get one scholarship, whereas Portland has eight or nine," said Tyson.

Regardless, Gonzaga has done an excellent job recruiting runners with strong work ethics. "We don't get the blue chippers but the recruits we get are really solid. The freshmen have helped raise the bar for the team. The overall expectation of what the team can do has gone up. The overall atmosphere has improved," said captain Andrew Walker.

Kelly and Walker also attribute depth to the team's success. "We're very deep this year. We've had 14 different guys in the top seven this year. It's hard for other teams to match that," said Kelly. Walker pointed out that 10 runners finished within 19 seconds of each other in the last race.

As far as the training goes, everything has largely remained the same year to year. "We haven't been doing anything different this year," said Tyson. "We have the same rhythm, the quality of athlete is just better. The guys this year spin their legs at a faster pace."

Though not much separates the freshmen runners, freshmen Alex Fote and Nick Roache have established themselves as quality runners and have earned a trip to the conference tournament.

While the team has brought in some hard working freshmen, the team's most consistent runners remain the upperclassmen. Captains Tate Kelly, Andrew Walker, and Chris Boyle lead the number 14 team in the west. The captains all approach the sport with different attitudes and demeanors, but work in harmony and foster an intense—but fun—environment. "Tate is a people person. Guys respond well to him. He's got the whole social thing figured out," said Walker. The compliments didn't stop there. "Andrew (Walker) is a dynamic runner and a really nice guy. He's not an in-your-face kind of guy," said Kelly.

Chris Boyle is redshirting this year due to injury, and will be a welcome re-addition to the team next year. "Chris is the guy who got this thing going," said Tyson. "He demands excellence and tells it like it is." Both Kelly and Walker pointed to Boyle as a true leader that isn't afraid to get in someone's face and push them to work harder. 

In order to maintain their recent success, the team looks to work harder than ever. "We need to feed off the momentum. The ranking draws excitement.

Now we need to go to regionals and prove we deserve the ranking. We need to prove we belong there," said Kelly. "We should feel really proud," added Walker. "At the same time though, our current status isn't the eventual goal. We want to go to nationals. We aren't where we want to be yet. We have to keep it in perspective." Coach Tyson believes the runners need to continually challenge themselves to sustain their success. "We have 28 men on our team and only nine spots. You gotta work your butt off to make it. You have to be self-driven," said Tyson.

 The team's goal is to place third in the conference. Portland and conference newcomer BYU form the top tier of the conference, while Gonzaga lies somewhere in the middle, among schools like LMU, Santa Clara, and USF. A third place finish in conference would prove that Gonzaga is inching towards the top echelon of west coast teams.

 Oh, and having everyone back next year doesn't hurt either.