Scotty Bauhs bests the field at the Stanford Invitationl Chico State men fifth, women sixth in loaded fields

Red shirt Scotty Bauhs, with just 100m left before winning the Stanford Invitational in a blazing 23:07 time!!!

By Gary Towne, Chico State head coach Saturday, October 20, 2007 Palo Alto, California - The Stanford Invitational always provides participants with large and loaded fields, that mirror NCAA championship type conditions, and this year was no different. With more than thirty teams competing, most of which were Division I programs, the stage was set for another exciting day on the Stanford Golf Course. Men’s 8k: The field in the mens race was very strong this year with the host Stanford (currently ranked #6 in DI polls) leading the list of contenders. Second ranked (DII) Adams State, fresh off their 15 point perfect score effort in winning the Colorado State Invite two weeks previous would also be a contender up front. Add the Bears of CAL who have no less than three High School Foot Locker All Americans on their roster along with sub 4 minute miler David Torrance, and a host of other ranked NAIA, DIII, and DII squads, and you have the field assembled on Saturday. The Wildcats went into Saturday not at complete strength, as a few athletes are still struggling with sickness, but thankfully their depth would pull through in helping them to another solid team placing.

As usual the start was a mad rush of 300+ distance runners all trying to vie for position. As the race up front unfolded it was quickly apparent that last year’s lead pack dictated by Stanford’s top runners wasn’t to be repeated this year. Kenyan Aron Rono of third ranked (NAIA) Azusa Pacific seized the lead and created a VERY honest rhythm for the pack to follow. Redshirting Wildcat Scotty Bauhs quickly gave chase leaving the pack behind until he caught the Kenyan standout at the mile mark. Now the pack was led by ‘07Chico Alum Charlie Serrano who attempted to pull himself up to Rono and Bauhs. The pace up front was too quick for Seranno and he was never quite able to bridge the gap between himself and the two leaders. Out quite fast were the Chico trio of Tim Tollefson, Michael Wickman, and Brendan Scanlon. Unfortunately both Wickman and Scanlon weren’t feeling quite well on Saturday and both would suffer a bit. Wickman would end up losing his lunch along the course, and Scanlon would finish fairly well, but only after dealing with some difficult cramps along the way. Tollefson continued his strong running moving through tiring runners and eventually finding his way into the Top-25 overall. The race for the individual win was definitely one of the better races that I’ve witnessed at the Stanford meet. After catching and running with Rono for about a mile, Bauhs was dropped by the talented Azusa runner and trailed by nearly 40-50meters with 2 miles remaining in the race. Late in the fourth mile Bauhs stormed back and caught and passed Rono, eventually hitting the tape 6 seconds in front, with a ridiculously fast 23:07 PR for 8k. Serrano who had somewhat sold himself in the early kilometers held on tight after giving up a few places to Cal and Stanford’s #1 runners and would eventually finish 6th overall in a new PR (23:56). Tollefson would chop a nice 20 seconds off his time from the same layout a year ago while leading the ‘Cats with his 24:44 time. Angel Marquez (25:13), Brendan Scanlon (25:18), Manny Mejia (25:22) and Matt LoForte (25:28) would close out the ‘Cats scoring today. Although the times weren’t the greatest for some, the ‘Cats depth prevailed while earning a 5th place team finish overall. Notes from the Men’s race: RS Frosh Matt LoForte continues to gain fitness with each week. After missing the entire track season and most of the summer with injuries Matt has enjoyed solid training and a great progression with racing since. This week he became a scoring runner while notching a nice 25:28 PR. Bauhs knocked nearly :30 off his ’06 time on the course while running one of fastest 8k’s that I can remember on the West Coast. The men ran with a 1:13 1-13 gap, but will need to tighten the number of places between Tollefson and the rest of the pack in the coming weeks if a high regional and national placing is to happen.

Women’s 6,000 Although they didn’t fire on All cylinders the Chico State women came a lot closer this week than they had in Idaho one week ago. A very impressive :40 1-6 carried the Wildcat women to an impressive 6th place showing in a very strong field. Having scouted the field in advance, I had felt that a Top-10 performance would be a pretty descent effort for the Wildcats given the depth of talented teams in the field. Once again it was Sarah Montez leading the charge for the ‘Cats up front. Sarah put herself among the top 20-25 from the gun and appeared composed and ready for a solid finish. Having been a bit under the weather for the past two weeks, Sarah once again fell off the early pace but held on well enough to finish among the top-30 overall. Running the best race of her life to date was fellow senior Aisha Kamala. Kamala, along with teammates Lindsay Nelson, Kara Lubieniecki, and Shannon McVanell covered the initial kilometers together passing athletes who’d started much too hard. Following close behind this group was Allison Ivie who was also passing hordes of tiring athletes. One by one the Cats top group made their way through the talented field. In the final kilometers frosh Lubieniecki and McVanell tired and fell off the pace, but Kamala, Nelson and Ivie kept moving forward through the field. Montez would start the ‘Cats scoring notching a 30th place finish, with Kamala, Ivie and Nelson all stopping the clock within 20 seconds of Sarah. Kara Lubieniecki with what’s becoming a trademark kick, ended the ‘Cats scoring with her 60th place finish. McVanell and Dinora Moran each ran sub 23 minute times as well in the ‘Cats 6,7 spots. Although we were lacking a low number that many of the other top teams had today, our minimal 1-5 gap helped secure the sixth place finish. Notes from the Women’s Race: Scanning the team results the ladies can feel good about their placement in the overall standings. Over 10 Division I teams finished below the Lady ‘Cats on Saturday including in state rivals Cal Poly SLO, Fullerton, UC Davis, CAL Berkeley, and Long Beach State. The goal now will be to make up some of the gap that remains between top ranked (DII) Adams State, and ourselves. Aisha Kamala and Allison Ivie both enjoyed their best XC races to date and each played an important role in the nice team performance. Lindsay Nelson who’s been a bit below par previous to Saturday showed signs of life with her low 22 minute run. Kayla Silva in only her 3rd cross country race ever notched another solid performance. Ondi Foster also enjoyed a great outing. A year ago Ondi ran the 5k here averaging 7:10 per mile. On Saturday Ondi ran 6:43 pace for a full 6k distance.

Chico State's Jordan Page running 25:36 today

Dinora Moran at the 1/2 mile with Lindsay Nelson just behind