XC continues to follow the herd

The men and women's cross country teams recently tested their training at the West Coast Conference Championships at the Crystal Springs course in Belmont, Calif., and are headed back to California this weekend for the regional competition at Stanford.

Both teams placed fifth in 2010 and were striving for improvement this year, but the women finished fifth and the men finished sixth. BYU captured the men's title and San Francisco took home the women's. Sophomore Emily Thomas placed ninth in the competition, earning All-WCC honors.The Zags were lucky to have Thomas back, who had missed two races this season due to injury.

"Emily Thomas just stepped it up, got ninth place, made All-West Coast Conference," head coach Pat Tyson said.

In the past, Tyson has required a top-three team placement to take the team to regionals. However, this year he has decided to take both the men's and women's top seven runners to the regional competition at Stanford in two weeks. It is the first time since Tyson received the head coaching job in 2008 that he has sent a whole squad; in previous years he has only taken individuals.

"We are really proud of the ladies, and it was a no -brainer for me to lobby the athletic department to send our ladies to regionals," Tyson said.

On the men's side, the decision to send the team to regionals was "gut-wrenching because it is a big investment, but at the end of the day, us coaches felt that we are where we need to be," Tyson said.

The women had momentum and confidence going into the race. Not only did they take home the team title two weeks ago at the Inland Northwest Cross Country Classic, but No. 1 runner Lindsey Drake took home her first collegiate title at the event.

In a recent interview with gozags.com, Drake said that the win gave her "so much confidence," and she is hoping to see more wins in the future.

 Unfortunately, Drake was dehydrated last weekend. She struggled in the last mile of the race and collapsed at the finish line.

"She is a top 10 West Coast Conference runner easily; she had a rough go down there. And it wasn't about her not being competitive, it was about her body shutting down," Tyson said. "She barely could finish. She goes from top 10 easy with a little over 800 meters to go … her body just shut down. I didn't think she could finish. It was really hard to watch."

Following Thomas were Maggie Jones in 23rd, Elizabeth Ryan in 26th, Krista Beyer in 28th and Emily Albrecht at 43rd. The time spread between the scorers was one minute and 51 seconds. Catherine Theobald came in sixth for Gonzaga and 51st overall and Kristen Lightfoot came in seventh for Gonzaga and 58th overall.

"It was an interesting experience, a learning experience," said Beyer, a sophomore who competed at conference for the first time this year. "It was a step forward for the GU team. It was awesome to be competitive with the other top teams at a venue that has been a bit over our heads in the past. We are still learning and growing, but the race showed us we're well on our way to becoming a highly competitive D-1 program."

The men's team also had a lot of momentum going into the race. They were recently ranked No. 14 in the West Region, the first time the program has received a ranking.

Sophomore Nate Gesell finished first for the Bulldogs and 25th overall. He was followed by Tate Kelly in 26th and Willie Milam in 27th.  Brent Felnagle and Nick Roche rounded out the scorers for Gonzaga in 30th and 32nd, respectively. Robert Walgren finished sixth on the squad and 34th overall, and Patrick Richie finished seventh on the squad and 35th overall.  The time spread for the seven runners was 36 seconds.

Richie, a junior, competed at conference for the second time this year.

"We ran OK. It's a tough course, and our times were pretty good. We just didn't compete as well as we had hoped," he said. 

Drake was named to the 2011 West Coast Conference Women's All-Academic first team. A press release from Gonzaga Athletics gave the GPAs and majors of the athletes who receive honors. Drake has a 3.78 and is a biology major. Emily Thomas received honorable mention for the academic team, along with Willie Milam and Andrew Walker. Thomas has a 3.40 in human physiology, Milam has a 3.69 in business and Walker has a 3.64 in political science.

With 34 women and 28 men on the roster, the program is definitely gaining momentum and becoming stronger every year.

 "Go back four years ago and it's night and day. Go back three years ago and it's night and day. Even go back one year ago, I don't want to say quite night and day, but we are moving in the right direction," Tyson said.