Fresno State Athletics
Bulldogs to Compete at WAC Championship
10/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 25, 2005
FRESNO, Calif. -
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2005 WAC Championship This Week
Coming off an idle week, the Fresno State cross country team competes at the 2005 Western Athletic Conference Championship on Sat., Oct. 29, 8:00 a.m. (PDT) at Eagle Island State Park in Eagle, Idaho. Hosted by Boise State, the women's championship will be a 6K race for the first time in league history. The course consists of grass and dirt paths around a small pound. The course begins in a grass field and has a 200-meter straight before it enters the 2,300-meter loop around the pond. The women will run the loop twice before reentering the grass field to finish. The results will be posted at www.runnercard.com, www.broncosports.com and www.wacsports.com.
Bulldogs Competing at the WAC
Fresno State's championship squad has been set as the Bulldogs will be sending seven runners to the WAC Championship this weekend: Juniors Andrea Buckner (Yorba Linda, Calif.), Valeria Delgado (Clovis, Calif.) and Zinzi Evans (Oakland, Calif.), sophomores Marina Santana (Woodland Hills, Calif.) and Patty Torres (Porterville, Calif.) and freshmen Paloma Dominguez (Corcoran, Calif.) and Roxanne Sellick (Fresno, Calif.). Of the seven, five have ran in at least one WAC championship race. The 'Dogs will look to improve upon last year's eighth-place finish. Last year, Buckner crossed the finish line first for Fresno State when she ran a 5K time of 18:35 to place 16th overall. Evans, who also finished among the top 40 runners, clocked her second-fastest 5K time of the season with a 19:25 to finish 35th overall.
'Dogs History at WAC Championship
In the WAC Cross Country Championships, Fresno State has finished among the top five four times since 1992. The Bulldogs best finish was fourth place in 1995 with a trio of fifth-place showings in 2003, '01 and 1994. In 1995, Danielle Nelson owns the best overall individual finish by a Bulldog as she finished fourth overall with a time of 18:05. Other top 10 individual WAC finishes were recorded by Nicole Kulikov (5th, 17:28, 1997) and two-time All-WAC performer Kara June (6th, 17:43, 2003). While Fresno State has never had a conference individual champion, the program does boast one league title (1988, Big West).
Head Coach Joe Gonzales
In his first season as the head coach of the Fresno State women's cross country program, Joe Gonzales has been a longtime assistant with the Fresno State track program. Entering his sixth year as an assistant coach in charge of the distance runners, he also previously coached the Fresno State men's cross country program (2000-02). During his tenure as the men's cross country coach, Gonzales led the team to three top five finishes in the WAC, finishing fifth in 2001 and '02 along with a third place finish in 2000. Four runners also received All-WAC honors during that time. Prior to entering his coaching career at Fresno State, Gonzales served as a coach at Exeter Union High School. He began his coaching career at Exeter, where he started as a volunteer assistant for the cross country team in 1990. In 1995, he became the head cross country coach for both the boys and girls programs. Gonzales then served as the head track & field coach at Exeter from 1998-2000. In his 10 years at Exeter, he led the girls' cross country team to five league championships and a section title and the girls' track and field team to two league crowns. He guided the boys' cross country team to a pair of league titles. Gonzales graduated from Fresno State with a bachelor of science degree in liberal studies.
Been There Before
While Gonzales is in his first year as the Fresno State head women's cross country coach, he is not making his first WAC Championship appearance. Gonzales coached the Bulldog men's program for three years and guided it to three top five conference finishes, including a third-place showing in 2000. In 2000 Fresno State had three runners finish among the top 12 as all three garnered All-WAC accolades. Also, in 2001 and 2002, the Bulldogs had two more all-conference honorees as Gonzales has coached five cross country All-WAC cross country performers to date. On the women's side, Kara June was the last Bulldog to capture all-conference honors when she was a first team selection in 2003.
Cal Poly Invitational in Review
Fresno State wrapped up its regular-season on a high note with a fourth-place showing out of 10 collegiate teams at the Cal Poly Invitational ... Six of the Bulldogs' 10 runners recorded personal-best times as Fresno State tallied 144 points to finish behind meet winner UC Irvine ... Buckner, Evans and Sellick were the top three harriers for Fresno State as they all finished among the top 35 ... Buckner clocked 18:13.7 for a seventh place overall finish ... For the third straight year Buckner improved her time at the Cal Poly Invitational as she ran 19:06 as a freshman before posting a time of 18:28 as a sophomore ... Evans finished 22nd overall with a time of 19:03.9 ... She, too, improved her time at the Cal Poly Invitational for the third straight year after running 27:01 in 2003 and 19:07 in 2004 ... With a 32nd-place showing, Sellick posted a personal-best 5K mark of 19:32.6 ... Santana, Torres, Delgado round out the top six runners for the Bulldogs ...Santana posted a season-best time of 19:50.2 and placed 35th overall while Torres clocked a personal-best 20:25.8 to finish 50th ... Delgado crossed the finish line with a time of 20:34.1 (62nd) and Dominguez ran 20:39.9 (66th) ... Santana and Torres, like Buckner and Evans, bettered their Cal Poly course marks as well ... Santana ran 20:19 a year ago while Torres had a mark of 20:58 ... Dominguez finished as the Bulldogs' seventh runner and posted a time of 20:39.9 ...Senior Sunny Arada (Clovis, Calif.), junior Dina McPhail (Crotton, Md.) and sophomore Nancy Rodriguez (Tulare, Calif.) all wrapped up the regular-season with personal-best times ... Arada ran 21:29.8 (84th), McPhail clocked 22:21.9 (93rd) and Rodriguez posted a time of 22:44.8 (98th).
Looking Ahead
While Fresno State is focused on capturing its first WAC title, the Bulldogs also will be looking to use this weekend as a way to qualify for the NCAA Regionals as a team. Schools that finish among the top half at the WAC Championship will qualify for the NCAA's. Individuals also can qualify for the NCAA's as well by finishing among the top 20 runners at the WAC Cross Country Championship. If the 'Dogs qualify as a team or have individual runners qualify, the harriers will travel to Stanford on Nov. 12 for the NCAA West Regionals. The last time Fresno State qualified as a team for the NCAA's was in 2003 when the Bulldogs finished 18th out of 31 in the NCAA West Region, which was held at San Jose State.
Xbox Live WAC Athlete of the Week
Buckner was named the Xbox Live WAC Cross Country Female Athlete of the Week on Oct. 17. This was her first conference player of the week accolade as she came off a seventh-place finish among a 118-runner field at the Cal Poly Invite with a 5K time of 18:28. This season, Buckner has one invitational crown to her credit when she captured the CS Stanislaus title on Sept. 10 with a 6K time of 22:30.
Buckner is Top 'Dog
After finishing as the Bulldogs top runner in all seven races a year ago, Buckner continues her leadership form by finishing first for Fresno State in all its five regular-season meets of the season. At the Cal Poly Invitational, she finished seventh out of 118 runners with a time of 18:13.7. At UC Riverside Invite, she finished 10th out of 92 runners and posted a career-best time of 18:11.2. That mark also was good to rank 18th overall in the school's all-time 5K list. At the 32nd Annual Stanford Invitational, she finished 46th out of 227 runners in the 6K meet after clocking 23:01. At the CS Stanislaus Invitational Buckner captured her first career invitational win when she ran a 6K time of 22:30, just seven seconds off her career-best mark set at the 2004 NCAA Regional. She became the first Bulldog to win an invitational since Kara June captured a pair of titles in 2003. At the CS Fullerton Invitational, Buckner finished 19th (19:36.7) overall in a field of 253 runners in the 5K race. The two-time NCAA Regional qualifier owns career-best times of 18:11.2 (5K) and 22:03 (6K) with one blue ribbon and one second-place finish.
Sellick and Evans Form Top Scoring Trio
Evans and Sellick continue to give Fresno State a formidable scoring trio. Evans has finished second for the Bulldogs in three races while Sellick has finished second twice. In addition, each have finished as one of the 'Dogs top three runners in all the meets. In the 2-mile Watermelon Run to open the season, Sellick captured the meet crown with a time of 11:25 - five seconds off the school's freshman record set by Mary Kuphaldt in 1986. Sellick's time ranks 15th best all-time on the Bulldogs' 2-mile list. At the CS Stanislaus Invitational she set the school's 11th-best all-time 6K mark (23:31). Also at the CS Stanislaus invite, Evans, who did not run cross country in high school, set a career-best 6K time of 23:30 - a mark that ranks No. 10 all-time at Fresno State. This season, both have set personal-best 5K marks as Evans clocked 18:32.6 at the UC Riverside Invitational and Sellick posted a best-time mark of 19:32.6 at the Cal Poly Invitational.
Delgado, Santana and Torres Complementing
While the top three Bulldog scoring harriers are solidified, three others who are complementing the team are sophomores Santana, Torres and Delgado. In her fourth race of the season, Santana posted a personal 5K best time of 19:50.2 at the Cal Poly Invitational and broke the 20-minute barrier for the first time since she ran a 19:35 at the 2004 Fresno State Invitational. Torres has finished among the top five runners for the Bulldogs in four meets this season and is coming off a career-best 5K run of 20:25.8 at the Cal Poly Invite. After competing in only two races last year, Delgado ran a season-best 5K mark of 20:09.3 at the UCR Invitational.
