A loaded field greets the Wildcats at the Bronco Invitational Red shirts and B teamers results mixed but show promise for the future

By Gary Towne, Chico State head coach Saturday October 15, 2011

Alan Cuevas pushing through the pain and battling DI competition.

Santa Clara, California -- This weekend while the Top 10 Wildcat men and 7 women rested in preparation for the upcoming CCAA Championships, the developing younger ‘Cats took to the trails of Bayland Regional Park in Sunnyvale competing in Santa Clara University’s Bronco Invitational. Running among the fastest SCU fields ever assembled, and against mostly Division I competition, the younger ‘Cats enjoyed a day of mixed results, which is somewhat predictable given their relative lack of experience in such deep and talented fields. Overall though the Wildcat crew gained valuable experience in a championship type setting, that will serve them well as they continue to develop and move into bigger roles on the squad. There were a total of 4 races on the day… One Invitational race per gender, and a pair of Open races. For the men ‘Cats #11-20 ran among the DI heavy Invitational race, while the Lady ‘Cats #8-#17 ran in the women’s version. Red shirts and a few other uniformed Wildcats competed in the still competitive “open” races which consisted of some top JC competitors as well as “A” teams from less powerful programs. Overall everyone had great competitions to work within. Below are the results and a quick summary of each race.

Women’s 5k Invitational Race: The women’s field was a VERY stacked race. With the top 3 DI programs from Idaho in attendance (Idaho, Idaho State, Boise St.) as well as “A” teams from Big West standout programs Cal Poly, Long Beach, and Riverside, along with a host of other big name universities, the ‘Cats knew that the pace would be fast and furious from the start. Not wanting to over-do the start, given the quality of the field, the Lady ‘Cats occupied a good portion of the final 20 runners as the field went through the 800m mark. Thankfully there was plenty of running to be done before an actual score was assigned to the teams. The women did a commendable job of executing over the final miles of the race. True frosh Tiffany Heflin had the best start of the bunch, and the relative “newbie” to college running made it stick, with a nice 18:23, finishing in the upper ½ of the field. In the next 10 seconds, no less than 20 athletes flooded across the line, including 2 more Wildcats Jessie Varela and Sara Mikesell. Olivia Guadiana and Paige Henker would stop the ‘Cats scoring with 18:41 and 18:42 clockings respectively. At the conclusion of the race glancing at the results sheet, the team’s 18th place out of 21 teams was a bit hard to comprehend.. But after some thought and further analysis it really wasn’t too bad of a day for the women. We knew going in, that there were very few teams in this field that weren’t running quite strong coming in. Meet host, Santa Clara had run their “A” team here (the same one that finished 2nd at Willamette 2 weeks ago) and our second squad had beaten them in their own meet. Our spread between 1-5 was a relatively miniscule 19 seconds, and this relatively young group of women had managed to handle the pressures of running in a very high powered race with mostly positive results.

Jessie Varela #1219, Natalie Galvan #1202, and Paige Henker at mid race on Saturday.

Nicole Reed finishing off her best collegiate race to date, PR’ing in the 5k XC by 30 seconds!

Men’s 8k Invitational Race: A very young and inexperienced group of Wildcat men stepped to the line on Saturday in Santa Clara. 4 of the eventual top-5 are Red Shirt frosh, running in the uniform for their first season, while the other is a RS Soph, who barely broke 27minutes a year ago on this course. Thankfully though, this group is quite talented, and deep, and despite several “implosions/bad days” we managed to put 5 across the line within a reasonable amount of time (29 second 1-5 gap). Leading the charge throughout was RS Frosh Jeremy Brummitt who recorded his second 25:20’s 8k on this day. As teammate Tiffany Heflin had done earlier in the women’s race, Jeremy enjoyed a descent start, and then went to work competing, finishing just inside the top-1/2 of the field. Rogan Meza who endured a very rough frosh campaign a year ago, went home this summer and put in a serious training cycle. The result has been a remarkable turn-around, that included a nice 25:46 run today. This is despite some sort of stomach ailment that has caused him to dry-heave in the later stages of each race this fall. In any event Meza was a solid #2 for the ‘Cats on Saturday running the same course in over a minute faster than he had a year ago. Dillon Breen, Dan Parker and Alan Cuevas (all RS Frosh) finished the ‘Cats scoring, as the trio all finished within an 8 second window of Meza. In almost a mirror performance to the women in every way, the men would finish 17th in the team scoring.

Jeremy Brummitt battling a U of Colorado runner at mid race.

Dillon Breen enjoying his best collegiate race to date.

Women’s Open 5K: The women’s 5k Open race was larger and deeper than ever and a good number of Chico red shirts competed in this field, along with uniformed Nicole Reed and Hilary LaBelle. True frosh Quetta Pienado had another stellar outing finishing 2nd overall in this race with a new 5k XC pr of 18:19. Rebekah Bahra and Xiang Tak finished 15th and 16th respectively while Lora James (22nd) gave the ‘Cats 4 of the top 25 finishers (all true frosh). Perhaps the biggest story of the day between any of the races for the ‘Cats, was the run of Nicole Reed who has been one of our most consistent workers for years now, but has struggled to nab sub 20 minute 5k clockings in most meets. On Saturday Nicole saw her hard work pay off in a big way, running to a new 5k PR (Track times included) of 19:13. Remember the bolded names below, because this group certainly represents the future of our program. Men’s Open 8K: Several red shirting Chico competitors would enjoy their best outings to date in the men’s open race, including Chico’s top 2 finishers Eric Garibay and Geoff Bogan. Garibay a true frosh from Arcadia HS, came in with solid credentials, including a 15:34 at the State XC Championships a year ago. Severe side cramp issues have plagued almost all of his competitions this year, causing DNF’s and less than expected final results. With the help of an adjustment to his gait, Garibay ran a very even-paced effort that saw him pass nearly 40 competitors in the final 4 miles of the run. Although the stitch did appear in the final ½ mile of the run, he was able to finish things off nicely with an eventual 25:23 run, which was the fastest time of the day by a Wildcat. Not to be outdone in the “race of the year” category was fellow true frosh Geoff Bogan. Geoff’s approach was a bit more aggressive from the start, than teammate Garibay, but it was equally as effective. Geoff got out among the top 15 overall in the early going and kept hammering throughout the run. A solid and complete race from gun to tape earned him a nice 25:31 PR, and a Top-15 finish overall. Next Up: for the ‘Cats is the CCAA Championships in Santa Rosa, CA this Saturday (Oct. 22nd). Stay tuned for a hopeful preview later this week. Thanks for the support!