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Sept. 1, 2001

Stats

SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University's cross country teams opened the season with mixed results Saturday morning at the Whitworth/Gonzaga Invitational on the Whitworth College course.

The Bulldog women, getting a fifth-place finish from Becka Hardy and an eighth-place from Kim Gibson, took third in the women's race with 68 points. The Gonzaga men, whose top finisher was Sam Burch, finished last in the five-team field with 124 points.

Leslie Nelson of Whitman captured the women's individual title in 15:30.34 over the 4.2K course, while Todd List of North Idaho College won the men's title in 16:04.47 over the 5K course.

The individual winners helped lead their respective teams to titles, Whitworth's women finishing first with 27 points, followed by Whitman College with 60, Gonzaga with 68 and NIC with 69. On the men's side, NIC edged Community Colleges of Spokane 32-35, with Whitworth third with 64 points, Whitman fourth with 103 and Gonzaga fifth with 124.

Hardy finished in 15:55.45 while Gibson was timed in 16:19.15. Burch finished in 17:21.40.

"I was encouraged by our women and newcomer Christi Urann in her inaugural race. With some of our injured runners returning our top five will be a lot stronger later in the season. When Carrie Gibson returns she'll give us some quality points and give us a stronger top five," Gonzaga head coach Kevin Swaim said.

Urann, a sophomore from Spokane's Mt. Saint Michael's Academy, was a member of Gonzaga's rowing team a year ago but switched to cross country this season.

"On the men's side, Burch showed he'll be a nice addition and a solid performer for us. A.J. Peil and Peter Cushman came back in shape. Mark Bridenstine took it easy today because he is slightly injured but we look for him to be a top five performer. We had some good freshmen performances in Ryan Anderson and Eric Berge, and sophomore Ben Sloniker ran a good first race."