Subject: Western Collegiate Open XC Champs!!!! Date: Saturday, September 18, 1999 6:14 PM Dear Alumni, recruits, parents, and supporters of the cross country program at CSUC, Having just returned from the Sierra College hosted Western Collegiate Open XC Invitational I have some great news to report to you all. The Chico State men and women ran very impressively this morning with the men capturing the team title and the women placing second to a very strong UC Davis squad. The fact that we took 1st and 2nd doesn't come close to telling the whole story behind today's effort by the 'Cat harriers though. On November the 6th 1999 the Regional Championships will be held on the Sierra course, so almost all of the contending teams made their way from all parts of the Western States including both Western and Central Washington to run the hilly trails of the Rocklin course. The men ran first with several nationally ranked teams toeing the line including: UC Davis (ranked #4 in NCAA), Chico State (ranked #16 ), and Cal Poly Pomona (ranked 25th). The only top team not present was Humboldt State who decided to bypass this opportunity to fly to Missouri to inspect the NCAA championship course in Joplin. With only two teams going to the NCAA's from the West this was and is viewed by our program as a bold move by Humboldt as there are no guarantees that they will indeed qualify for the NCAA's especially when they will not have run a race on the Regional Championship course before hand. It should be noted that Humboldt is ranked #9 in the NCAA currently. Facing their first 10k race of the year our top 4 runners were instructed to move together through the field for the first 4 miles with the #4 man always in the group. Then they were to increase the tempo and race to the finish at their own pace. This worked to perfection with David Braund, Jose Saenz, Kevin White, and Rafael Lopez running together moving through the pack and eventually reaching the 4 mile mark each in the top 10 overall! From here Braund and Saenz took chase of the front running James Liu of Pomona (a 14:28 5k performer on the track in the Spring), Jeff Kaiser of UC Davis (30:13 10k track runner), and Fergus Breck (former Humboldt State NCAC Individual Champ in XC in '97). All were caught but Kaiser who had established an insurmountable lead in the early miles. After the dust had settled the Wildcats had defeated their nearest opponent UC Davis 28-52. It should once again be noted that Davis ran without their #2 runner Paul Wellman who has had injury problems since taking 2nd overall at the Chico Invit two weeks earlier. But even with Wellman figured in at 2nd or 3rd overall the 'Cats still take the title. Top 10 results and top 'Cats are as follows: 1. Jeff Kaiser UCD 32:49 2. David Braund Chico St 33:02 3. Jose Saenz Chico St. 33:04 4. James Liu Pomona 33:07 5. Rafael Lopez Chico St. 33:08 6. Fergus Breck Unnat. 33:14 7. Ryan Miller UCD 33:16 8. Kevin White Chico State 33:20 9. Rondie Gibbs Pomona 33:27 10. Steve Laurie Unnat/Dav 33:31 12. Daniel Embaye Chico State 33:34 16. Tyler Graff Chico State 33:45 19. Ryan Wade Chico State 33:59 23. Nicholas Jacques Chico State 34:10 30. Brent Edson Chico State 34:33 41. Bobby Armstrong Chico St. 35:14 42. Pat Dickson Chico St. 35:23 44. Matt Canterbury Chico St. 35:26 61. Brian Locher Chico St. 36:04 65. Tim Layden Chico St. 36:21 93 runners total. Team scores: 1. Chico State 28 2. UC Davis 52 3. Cal Poly Pomona 83 4. CSU Stanislaus 130 5. Western Washington 157 6. Cal State LA 187 7. Central Washington 187 8. Humboldt St. B team 258 9. S.F. State 282 Awesome day for the men's program and a definite step forward, earning the respect of the Aggies of Davis who haven't lost to Chico with their 'A' team since '95. :32 second 1-5 gap!!! and :57 second 1-7! Great depth and front running both. On the women's side we knew going into the race that #4 ranked Davis was the team to beat and would be extremely tough to challenge for the title but this would be a great opportunity to measure ourselves against several top ranked regional teams (Seattle Pacific, Stanislaus, Central Washington, West Washington, and Humboldt) Seattle being a perennial NCAA qualifier and currently ranked #6 in the Nation was the odds on favorite for the runner-up spot behind UC Davis. But with a strong overall performance by the Chico State Lady Harriers the #6 ranked Seattle Pacific team was upended by #17 ranked Chico State. Leading the way for the 'Cats was Marrie Argentine who grew up within 5 miles of the Sierra College Campus and has run the hilly course many times in preparation for her big opportunity to compete there. The training paid off today as she clocked 23:26 for the 6k race. Following are the individual Chico results: 1. Sarah Schuler UCD 22:11 (overall Champion) 11. Marrie Argentine 23:26 20. Lisa Renteria 23:56 24. Lisa Nowak 24:03 26. Sarah Hallas 24:14 27. Amy Crislip 24:14 37. Kandida DeLaCruz 24:29 41. Jasmine Green 24:40 49. Andrea Carrillo 25:01 54. Denise Rummelhart 25:11 59. Christine Kitchen 25:19 68. Sarah Mullin 25:26 69. Lydia Berlage 25:28 78. Kristi Cangiamilla 26:07 95. Grace Gillmore 27:03 106. Kayla Davis 29:03 108 runners total. Team Results: with NCAA rankings in ( ) 1. UC Davis(4) 30 2. CSU CHICO(17) 94 3. Seattle Pacific(6) 103 4. Humboldt State 118 5. CSU Stanislaus 149 6. Central Washington 163 7. Cal St. LA 169 8. Cal Poly Pomona 207 9. Western Washington 212 10. Sonoma State 216 11. S.F. State 317 Overall a great day for the Chico State cross country teams. I couldn't be happier or more proud. Having executed the races to perfection I am left convincing them all that the best is yet to come. And I can't help but think that this is true. Today our #8 male runner was Nicholas Jacques a sophomore who was 5th overall in the conference as a Frosh two seasons ago. He's a late season type of runner who will definitely be a factor when an NCAA berth or a CCAA title are on the line. Stories within the team like this lead me to believe that the best is indeed yet to come.... Next week we're tempo running in the Aggie Invit in Davis taking an active "down week" from racing as it's a high mileage week for the entire team. Then it's off to the Stanford Invit where we're going to split the men's squad into A and B teams for the DI race and DII races. I would like to thank all who sent messages to the Enterprise Record concerning their lack of cross country coverage as it is much appreciated. I should also take this opportunity to apologize for the lack of grammar and content control in these e mails. I've been up since 4:45am today and am extremely tired but wanted to get this info out ASAP because I know many of you will be interested in our continuing progress. Thanks for the support and GO CATS!!!! Sincerely, a very proud Gary Towne (coach of the CSU, Chico cross country teams)