Zags win men's WCC all-sports award
IAN BIVONA | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 6 months AGO
Gonzaga’s Julian Strawther and Martynas Arlauskas pick up the offense in a home game against Saint Mary’s.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/GONZAGA UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS
Ian Bivona serves as the Columbia Basin Herald’s sports reporter and is a graduate of Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama. He enjoys the behind-the-scenes stories that lead up to the wins and losses of the various sports teams in the Basin. Football is his favorite sport, though he likes them all, and his favorite team is the Jets. He lives in Soap Lake with his cat, Honey. | June 12, 2022 4:32 PM
SAN MATEO, CALIF. - The West Coast Conference announced several conference awards at its annual awards banquet last week, with the Bulldogs taking home the 2021-2022 Men’s All-Sports Award according to a press release by the school.
The men’s sports program was highlighted by the Gonzaga basketball team, who made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the seventh consecutive season. The Zags were a No. 1 seed for the fourth time in the last five tournaments and ended the regular season ranked No. 1 in both the Associated Press and coaches polls.
The Bulldogs finished the 2021-2022 season with a 28-4 record and won their 10th straight WCC regular-season title and won the WCC tournament for the third time in a row.
In baseball, the Zags reached the NCAA tournament for the 12th time in program history. They entered the top 25 as well, reaching as high as No. 10 - the highest ranking under head coach Mark Machtolf in his 19 years at the helm of the program.
Gonzaga won all nine of its WCC series and tied a program-best with 20 conference wins. They won their sixth WCC regular-season title and had 30 wins for the sixth year in a row. They fell in the Blacksburg Regional of the NCAA tournament.
The Zags’ cross country team saw themselves ranked No. 13, the highest ranking in program history. They made their second championship appearance after placing fifth in the NCAA West Regional. Three runners cracked the top-20 in the regional, highlighted by a fifth-place finish by James Mwaura. Mwaura also helped the Zags in their lowest-ever point total in the WCC championships, where the Bulldogs took second place.
In tennis, the Bulldogs won a program-best 18 dual matches. In head coach DJ Gurule’s first year, the Zags finished with a .750 winning percentage, the highest in Bulldog history. They finished the year undefeated at home, with an appearance in the semifinal round of the WCC championship and opened the season ranked No. 46 in the ITA Division 1 rankings.
Bulldog soccer won seven games for the first time in six seasons. They had a four-game winning streak and won their first conference opener since 2015. The Zags were one of the more improved teams in the country, according to a press release from the school.
Rounding out the top 3 finishers in the men’s all-sports award were Santa Clara and Portland. In other awards released by the WCC last week, BYU won the Commissioners Cup and the Women’s All-Sports Award. The Zags finished second in the Commissioners Cup and fifth in the Women’s All-Sports Award.
Ian Bivona may be reached at [email protected].
ARTICLES BY IAN BIVONA
Moses Lake boys qualify eight, girls send 11 to Mat Classic
MOSES LAKE -- Nineteen total Mavericks qualified to wrestle at the upcoming Mat Classic, with the Moses Lake girls team qualifying 11 wrestlers and the boys team sending eight wrestlers to the Tacoma Dome. The Moses Lake boys took second at districts, scoring 214.5 points at the tournament. Sunnyside won the district tournament with 278.5 points.
Basin wrestlers bound for state after districts
MOSES LAKE – District tournaments were held across the state on Friday and Saturday, where boys and girls wrestlers punched their tickets into next week’s Mat Classic in Tacoma.
Mavs defeat Sunnyside, finish third in league
Moses Lake enters districts with confidence as regular season fades
MOSES LAKE – The Mavericks closed out the regular season with a trip to Sunnyside on Thursday night, coming out on top of a closely contested game with a 67-66 win over the Grizzlies. “They’ve been playing better, scoring more,” Head Coach Craig Groth said. “We’ve been doing a little bit better job on defense in certain situations and winning games leading up to that. Even games we haven’t won, we’ve been in really close games. Our confidence is really good right now, we felt great going into the game.”