Top Teams Take Care Of Business, Gonzaga Men and Arizona Women Left With Confusion

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

COLFAX, Wash. – A pair of good stories emerged on a cold, damp golf course Friday in the Palouse. And then they appeared to drift off into the fog.

A spirited throng of Gonzaga supporters made the 60-mile trip south from Spokane and watched the Bulldog men do exactly what they came for, placing sixth in a loaded NCAA West regional field. 

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Coach Pat Tyson, a high school coaching legend who has been chipping away at an NCAA berth for 12 years at Gonzaga, was ready to be carried to Terre Haute by a team featuring sophomore James Mwaura, who finished third. 

But after the celebration and photos, there was sobering news. Dominoes falling in other parts of the country  – Alabama beating Florida State, Harvard winning in the Northeast, etc. – put the Bulldogs back on the bubble, and possibly outside of it.

"Sixth usually gets in, and heck, we scored 140-some odd points. Almost every year 140 is going to get you into the NCAA, so it's kind of a mixed bag (of emotions)," Tyson said. 

The official announcement of which at-large teams will join the 31-team fields at NCAAs is Saturday afternoon at 5 p.m. Eastern. 

Mwaura, who missed the national meet last year by one spot as an individual, was thrilled with the idea that his team had made it. 

"Getting sixth, that was the plan coming out and that's what we got," Mwaura said. 

The highly ranked teams in the region advanced safely to next week's NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. 

The University of Portland men overtook Stanford in the final 2K of the season's first 10,000-meter race and won the regional title with 65 points. Stanford scored 78 for the second auto qualifier. Oregon was third with 90 points, Washington was fourth with 115, led by overall winner Andrew Jordan, and Boise State was fifth with 133. 

Gonzaga, the team looking for an unprecedented first trip to nationals, finished sixth with 148 points.

Jordan and Portland's Emmanuel Roudolff-Levisse, the 2017 regional champion, ran 10 seconds ahead of the field for nearly all of the 10K. Jordan sprinted to a victory by less than two seconds in 29:43.4.

On the women's side, Stanford picked up where it left off at the Pac-12 Conference Championships with another impressive performance. The Cardinal had the luxury of resting top runner Fiona O'Keeffe and her teammates, Ella Donaghu and Jessica Lawson finished 1-2 as Stanford scored 39 points. Donaghu's winning time was 19:50.8.

"I think we knew we were a really strong team, even without (Fiona), but this really seals the deal," Donaghu said. "I was proud of everyone who ran today. We ran really tough and we're super excited for next week."

Washington put two runners in the top six and finished with 49 points. Boise State was third with 86. Oregon didn't use top runner Susan Ejore and finished fourth with 145 points.   

The drama was reserved for the next spots. In 2018, the West sent six teams to nationals. 

This time, Arizona got fifth with 188 points and the initial reaction was all joy. The Wildcats, who didn't qualify a full team to last year's regionals and only sent four individuals, were nearly sure that they had done enough. They beat the two teams they though they needed to beat, the University of Portland and Oregon State.

"I told the girls today is just the beginning of something really great for this team," said Jennie Baragar-Petrash, the team's top finisher in 18th. 

Arizona last made it the NCAA championships in 2013 when the team finished second in the country.

It was a motivated team that arrived in Colfax.

"We went into Pac-12s feeling really relaxed and wanting to show up and do what we know how to do and we took that same mentality today," Liz Lansing said. "We did well at Pac-12s, we beat who we needed to beat. And we're ready to do it again today."

In his statement to the University of Arizona athletics site, coach James Li offered his team praise while acknowledging that fifth place was no sure thing.

"I feel great about our ladies' performance," Li said. "Today is definitely the best performance of the year for us. I have seen tremendous improvement through the season and I am really proud of all the ladies who came through and did what we set out to do. Now we are just in waiting mode."