Zags women's cross country races in NCAA West Regionals

Although our basketball team has obviously always been the main focus of this site, it's important that we recognize the successes of the other sports at GU as they are also killing it! Over Halloween weekend, the Gonzaga Women's Cross Country team won the WCC Championships... IN SPOKANE! This is an amazing accomplishment for the ladies as the team hasn't won the WCC Championship since 1995, and this is only the 2nd time in history that the team has EVER won. The team was led by Shelby Mills who placed 1st place in the race & was cheered on by tons of passionate and proud Zag fans and alumni... who we know are the best in the world.

What makes this moment even sweeter? The Bulldogs were picked to finish 4th in the conference in a pre-season poll... serves them right for overlooking the Zags! But wait there's more! After the win, the Bulldogs moved up to number five in the West Region ranking, the highest ranking that they have ever earned. After that, they proceeded to earn a national ranking.. for the first time in program history! I think we can all agree that this historical moment deserves some recognition, these ladies deserve it for how hard they have worked to get here!

I asked 5th-year senior Erin Bergmann if there is one specific moment she can remember that pushed them to get to this point and she responded, "5 years ago Patty Ley was first hired as head coach and goals were explicitly laid out for the program to build to the point where we win a WCC Championship and make it to nationals and really COMPETE. Every year we have multiple meetings to focus in on these goals and this year we really challenged the team because we knew that this was the best team we have ever had." She said that this year was different because the team finally really believed whole-heartedly that they could reach their goals. I then asked her to sum up this experience in 5 words and she answered, "Persistence, perseverance, relentless, reckless faith and family." Pretty much sums up GU sports as a whole if you ask me!

Next up for the Zags as the NCAA West Regionals in Seattle, WA on Friday, November 13. With the Zag community behind them, I have no doubt that their success will only continue to accumulate!