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Cross Country At EWU Dual On Saturday
Oct. 17, 2003 SPOKANE, Wash. - Gonzaga University's men's and women's cross country teams will be in action Saturday in Cheney when they face Eastern Washington University in a dual meet being billed as the "Battle for Spokane." The meet begins at 11 a.m. with the men's race, followed by the women's race at 11:45 a.m. "We're trying to revive the dual meet in cross country," Gonzaga head coach Kevin Swaim said. "Gonzaga and EWU are two programs improving every year. This is a good meet for us, and a dual meet atmosphere makes it even a little more competitive between the two schools." Juniors Ryan Anderson and Joe Manning, and freshman Joe Miller have paced the Bulldog men this season. Anderson has placed well in all four of his races this year, winning the Sasquatch Invitational hosted by the Community Colleges of Spokane, finishing 11th last weekend in the Cougar Invitational at Washington State University, taking 12th in the Bronco Invitational at Santa Clara University and coming in 23rd in the Sundodger Invitational hosted by the University of Washington. Miller was the top Bulldog finisher last week in eighth, while Manning was 16th in Pullman. Gonzaga's men defeated EWU 21-34 in the four-team Cougar Invitational last weekend that utilizes a dual meet scoring system. On the women's side, the Bulldogs got strong showings last weekend from sophomores Jamie Schiel and Jill Semenza, and junior Cathy Hall. Schiel finished ninth at the Cougar Invitational, Semenza was 10th and Hall was 19th. Semenza finished 33rd in the Sundodger Invitational, Schiel 36th in one of the top meets in the Northwest. The Bulldog women defeated EWU 22-35 last weekend in Pullman. "I think it will be a good race," Swaim said. "Last week's scores were close. If you flip flopped one or two positions, then they would have beaten us last week." Last year's Gonzaga-EWU dual was held at Finch Arboretum in Spokane with the Bulldog men prevailing 23-33 and the EWU women winning 22-35. EWU returns both individual champions from a year ago in Joe Hewitt (25.40.0) and Amy Jo Perrault (19:39.0). Gonzaga's men took the second through fifth spots a year ago and EWU's women swept the top three individual spots.
Saturday's meet will be the first on the EWU campus since the 1970's.
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