themselves and third place might have been the health of top runners Adrian Sherrod, Isaac Chavez and Anthony Costales. All three were dealing with the effects of a nasty head/chest cold that’s been sweeping through Chico of late. Sherrod was on the backside of the illness, where as Chavez and Costales seemed to be in the heart of the storm on raceday.
As the gun sounded yours truly quickly headed to a corner just shy of the kilometer marker to see how the ‘Cats were positioned early. As the lead pack approached it was obvious that the Chico guys had come to compete. Isaac Chavez ran ½ stride up on the lead pack that included the Top Stanford athletes, and a number of other standouts. Running in the 10-12 person lead pack was a sick Costales, who whether he liked it or not, was now in a very precarious situation with a pack that was being controlled by 3-4 guys with sub 13:40 5k credentials. Running just off this group was Adrian Sherrod. The rest of the ‘Cats were some distance back place-wise, but only 5-10 seconds by the clock.
By the mile mark Chavez and Costales were holding onto the back of the lead pack, which was clearly separated from a number of chasing guys who ran in a scattered line that led back to a large peleton. Adrian Sherrod ran in this “no man’s land” of sorts, mixing it up with some of UCLA’s top guys as well as a few other top names. Predictably the middle of the race saw Costales and Chavez bounced hard from the lead pack. The quick early pace left both in “damage control” mode, of which Chavez was better equipped to handle than his senior counterpart. Costales who appeared to be at the height of his flu-like symptoms, fell back through the field pretty hard, losing spots with each straightaway. The Wildcat pack (runners 4-10) ran very strong 2nd/3rd and 4th miles, moving up nicely through the field. By about 3.5 miles Costales had fallen back to the ‘Cats quartet of Joey Kochlacs, Johnny Sanchez, Alfonso Cisneros and Joseph Rivera, who were all moving nicely. Unfortunately Costales’ stay with this group was short lived as they were heading in opposite directions.
The final mile brought mixed results for the ‘Cats. Sherrod sewed up a beautiful effort in hitting the tape 14th overall. Chavez held on nicely finishing 26th overall. Johnny Sanchez and Alfonso Cisneros each finished within a second of one another placing 32nd and 35th respectively. The final mile claimed a few victims though, as Joey Kochlacs and Joseph Rivera gave up several of the places that they’d grabbed in the early miles. Kochlacs would stop the ‘Cats scoring with a 43rd place effort, and a swift closing Joshua Linen stopped the clock with the same time. Joseph Rivera was the ‘Cats 7th in 55th, Dayne Gradone came next with a 57th place run, and Anthony Costales and Jeremy Brummitt would conclude the ‘Cats day with 63rd and 74th place efforts.
Once the dust had settled, the scores were announced and the Chico men had placed 4th overall behind Stanford, UCLA and UCSB. The Gauchos had beaten the ‘Cats by only 9 points despite the rough outings by our usual top runners. A shining spot for the guys was just how well they ran as a group of 10. In looking at the team scoring page you’ll notice that the ‘Cats put all 10 across before every other team’s #7, with the exception of Stanford and UCLA. The depth of this squad is certainly a strength and it showed in a big way here. As we get our top guys healthy and racing well again, and add the solid pack behind.. this team has a lot of potential!
Women’s 6K:
The Women’s 6k field was comparatively a bit stronger than the men’s 8k. Many of the West Region’s top ranked D1 teams were present, as was #1 ranked (NAIA) Azuza Pacific. The ‘Cats would need to have a solid outing to maintain their streak of Top-10 performances. Thankfully this goal would be achieved through a consistent tough effort from the Lady ‘Cats.
Leading the way from the start was 2 time All American Alia Gray who placed herself nicely among a talented and swift moving pack near the front of the 280 woman field. As Gray ran side by side with former teammate, and now HoneyMilk sponsored athlete Kara Lubieniecki, her teammates placed themselves nicely among the talented pack. In past years at Stanford, our women have tended to become a bit buried in the early stages of this race, before climbing through the pack as others slow. This year our women generally had descent positioning by the kilometer mark, but not as much happened, good or bad after their initial placements.
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