Dear Chico State Cross Country Supporters, I am happy to announce that the cross country teams of Chico State successfully defended their West Region titles on Saturday on the tough Prado Park layout. For the men’s program this marked their fourth consecutive title and for the women, their third. Both teams easily qualified for the upcoming NCAA championships to be held on the same course on November 19th. I’ll re-cap the races below and will provide a few pictures to paint a picture of the action. ======================================================================================================== Women’s 6,000m: Coming off the stinging loss at the CCAA championships to UCSD the Wildcat women were anxious to get their season back on track. With a healthier line-up that once again included Senior Missy Lendl (who we rested at CCAA’s due to illness) the Wildcat ladies took control of the race from the gun. At the CCAA championships the wildcat women had gone out much too tentatively and spotted key UCSD runners WAY too much real estate in the early kilometers. This week, the exact opposite happened. The UCSD women failed to match the fast early pace of the Wildcat pack, leaving them with too much ground to cover in the final stages of the race. One UCSD runner who wasn’t afraid to create an honest early pace was CCAA individual champ Mimi Hodgins. Thankfully Chico’s Katie Lee marked her early moves and the two had separated from the pack by the mile mark of the race. The pair ran side by side, trading surges in the middle miles. Meanwhile the Chico pack of Missy Lendl, Jen James, Ciara Harvey, Lindsey Nelson and Julie Shaw pushed through the middle kilometers locked in positions between 8th and 20th. With a mile to go, Lee’s surges had created a 5 second cushion between herself and a tiring Hodgins. Unfortunately though, Lee couldn’t add more than this 15meter lead onto the dangerous UCSD runner. Hodgins, who missed winning the NCAA title in the 800m last Spring by less than a second had dangerous finishing speed and these wheels were unfortunately deployed in the final 100m. Lee carried the lead up the final hill and was passed on the final turn with 100m remaining and wasn’t able to match the cadence of the UCSD senior’s stride. Still Lee gave nothing to Hodgins and finished as Chico’s highest individual female placer for the west region event ever. Running the fastest final mile of any woman in the race was Chico’s Jennifer James (CCAA champ ’04). When James left the start/finish area heading for the final mile loop in the outer area of the course, she was in 10th position overall. She would appear with 300m remaining running in the third spot and charged up the final hill. In her final move she passed an assortment of accomplished runners including several All Americans and the GNAC champ Pavla Havlova. James’ final push gave the ‘Cats an important 2-3 finish which were key to today’s victory. In my Pre-meet assessment I had mentioned that the winning team would probably need to finish with it’s 5 scorers among the top 15 finishers. Seniors Missy Lendl and Ciara Harvey grabbed spots 11-12 with their second All Region performances which gave the ‘Cats 4 of the top 12 finishers. UCSD had two finishers in w/ Erin O’Donnell’s 7th place effort. Sewing up the Wildcat victory was true frosh Julie Shaw who has been the most pleasant surprise to the Wildcat squad this fall. Shaw who was a mid-19 min XC runner as a Senior at Anderson HS last Fall upped her stock tremendously on Saturday as she held off UCSD’s 17:30 5k gal Emily McGregor for 14th overall. Lindsey Nelson solidified the ‘Cat victory with an impressive 17th place finish giving the ‘Cats 6 finishers before the #4 Triton of UCSD. Senior Dallase Scott who’s been suffering from tired legs as of late, struggled on this day, but still managed a top 50 showing. One glowing statistic from this weekend’s turn-around for the women’s squad was the improvements in placing between the Conference meet and Regional championships. Below are the 7 Chico women and their placings at CCAA’s last week, and their weekend Regional placings. Athlete CCAA place Regional Place Katie Lee 10th 2nd Jennifer James 3rd 3rd Missy Lendl Did not run 11th Ciara Harvey 4th 12th Julie Shaw 20th 14th Lindsey Nelson 18th 17th Dallase Scott 24th 50th With 2 additional conferences represented this week, no less than 4 women equaled or bettered their CCAA placements. See Results. ============================================================================================================== Men’s 10,000m Championship (run at Noon in 80 degree temps) Goal #1 for the Wildcat men on Saturday was to run an honest effort over the difficult and slow Prado layout, in hopes that the experience would help their chances for success at the upcoming NCAA championships. Several factors make the Prado course quite slow, including the thick grassy terrain, constantly undulating surface under the grass that finds runners tripping up over themselves, and the 80 degree temps that often greet runners at mid-day. Knowing that the NCAA pace would be fast and furious, the top 7 Wildcat men all sailed through the mile in 4:43-4:50. On a flat course with good footing this mile would easily equate to a 4:35 effort for the leaders. At the mile Wildcats Pat Boivin, Scott Bauhs, Antonio Miramontes, Beau Bettinger, and Kyle Ivie occupied the top 5 positions. Pre race favorite Casey Moriarity of Seattle U was tucked nicely into the pack of wildats along with several others including Humboldt’s top runners and David Kipligat the Kenyan from Alaska Anchorage. Chico’s Rory Kuykendall and Kyle Ivie trailed the main pack , but still reached the mile in 4:50. If Saturday’s 10k was a movie, it would have been a very long one.. at times difficult to watch, and full of twists and turns, but with an ending that was somewhat predictable and happy. After the fast early start the heat and pace, and difficulty of the course, started to take it’s toll on all of the runners in the lead pack. By 2 miles, Chico’s Charlie Serrano had separated himself from the pack and defending champ Mark Batres had given chase. CCAA champ Boivin floated in 6th place seemingly out of contention. Beau Betinger ran in 3rd place with Seattle’s Morarity just behind in 4th. Scott Bauhs was falling off the pace and ran in 5th . By the 5k, Batres had caught Serrano and the two split 15:25 running approx 10 seconds ahead of Moriarty, Bettinger and Boivin (who had caught the other two). By 3.5 miles Batres had dropped a tired looking Serrano, and looked as though he would repeat as champion… at least to most onlookers, and those who don’t know Pat Boivin. At this point of our movie/race the appropriate background music would have to be the “Jaws” movie bit when the shark is about the attack… because just as quickly as he thought he’d broken the race wide open, Batres was caught and passed by a very motivated and hungry Pat Boivin. Pat blew by the Pomona standout very quickly giving the home-team senior no chance to react. Boivin’s move seemed to deflate Batres who immediately began to struggle. Having stuck close throughout, Serrano would overtake Batres in the final mile of the race for an eventual second place finish. With 2 miles remaining Beau Bettinger (who was running in 5th now) was noticeably pale and seemed to be weaving from side to side. The junior who was running in his first regional championship wasn’t feeling well and it was quite obvious to anyone watching the race. Fortunately though, teammate Antonio Miramontes who seemed to be picking up his pace throughout the race (while still managing a smile during the middle miles) caught Beau and the two worked together for the next mile. The next two Wildcats were in a similar situation as Rory Kuykendall who barely made the top 7 of this squad through his amazing run at CCAA’s had caught teammate Kyle Ivie and tried to help the tired Ivie through the tougher miles. With the Individual title in the bag Boivin enjoyed his final ¼ mile stretch to the finish and raised his arms in victory. Teammate Charlie Serrano who was left off the NCAA squad a year ago after placing 12th in this race, showed how far he’s come since last November while defeating the defending champion Batres who would settle for third today. A hard charging Antionio Miramontes would give the ‘Cats 3 of the first 4 finishers and a great start towards repeating as champions. Holding on well over a tough final mile of running was Beau Bettinger who finished 7th overall. Rory Kuykendall who at times this season ran outside of our top 10 runners on the Chico squad, raced to another awesome performance w/ his 9th place effort. A somewhat deflated and beaten Scott Bauhs crossed the line 12th today, knowing his effort over the same layout in two weeks will mean much more to the team’s success. The most heart-breaking finish was that of Kyle Ivie, Chico’s 7th man on this day. With only the top 15 individuals earning All Region, Kyle struggled home with a 16th place finish. All in all a solid day for the Wildcat men, but looking at the spreads between top runners on the squad, a much improved effort will be needed if we are to compete for an NCAA title in two weeks.