Despite valiant effort, Wildcats come up short at West Regionals Both Chico State teams second to Alaska-Anchorage, the men were excruciatingly close

By Gary Towne, Chico State head coach Saturday November 5, 2011

The lead pack in the men's race nearing the 4k mark is looking a lot like a dual meet

Spokane, Washington -- I’m proud to report that Both men’s and women’s cross country teams will finish their seasons on the start line of the NCAA Championships for the 12th straight year. Although the day wasn’t perfect in terms of winning titles, we did enjoy a pair of runner-up performances, and comfortably qualified on to the NCAA meet in two weeks (to be run in Spokane as well). All 7 men finished among the top 17 overall, earning All Region (Top-25 now) and 6 of the 7 Wildcat women earned the same distinction. The fact that Alaska Anchorage won both titles for the second straight year didn’t sit well with the Wildcat crew, which is a testament to where our program is these days, and hopefully will motivate them even more as they prepare for the upcoming NCAA meet to be held on Nov. 19. Women’s 6K Championships: As mentioned in my championship preview, Alaska Anchorage has a Loaded women’s roster, and despite the rankings coming into the meet, I considered the Seawolves the favorites for the team title. With temperatures hovering in the mid 30’s with scattered clouds, the Chico women jumped on the early pace, joining the leaders through the initial kilometer. Having run a bit too conservatively from the start of the CCAA outing, the Chico women went into the regional ready to

take the race by the horns. During the second kilometer Alaska’s 1-2 duo of Ruth Keino and Meriam Kipng’eno took control of the race from the front. Giving chase was CCAA Champ Alia Gray who spearheaded the move from the pack. For the most part all the ‘Cats had crossed through the kilometer mark in the top 30 runners overall (160+ runners total) and looked good in the early going. 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. As the race developed, gaps formed between groups, including a fairly large one between the Alaska pair up front, and Alia Gray and UCSD’s Chia Chang, who ran on Gray’s heels through 2 kilometers. At 2.5 kilometers Alaska ran with 4 of the top 6 overall and with 5th and 6th runners operating among the top 15 overall. The ‘Cats had Amy Schnittger working well among the top 12-13 and Katie Spencer just a few places back. Paige Henker who was a last minute addition to the roster after not making the CCAA team looked good running in the mid 20’s overall, with teammates Jonah Weeks and Shannon Rich. By mid race it was apparent that Alaska was in full control of the race, and the ‘Cats were sitting quite well in second overall. Over the final kilometers Gray lost a few places at the front, but overall the ‘Cats ran very strong down the stretch. At the finish Alia held on nicely for 5th overall, nailing down her first Top-5 regional finish and earning her third Top-15 showing at the meet. Last year’s Regional alternate Amy Schnittger took complete advantage of her first NCAA regional run while finishing 9th overall respectively. Teammate Katie Spencer also enjoyed a nice regional run placing 14th overall. In only ten more seconds the ‘Cats would have all 5 scorers across the line as Shannon Rich and Paige Henker crossed in 20th and 21st overall. Jonah Weeks crossed the finish in 24th overall nabbing the ‘Cats final All Region spot on the day as well. Freshman Tiffany Henker was the lone casualty for the ‘Cats, having an unexplained rough outing in placing 49th overall. With a finish score of 66 the ‘Cats were some distance behind Anchorage’s 27 point effort, but well ahead of 3rd place Western Washington’s 148. As mentioned earlier, the women earned their 12th straight trip to the NCAA Championships and will look to add to their 10 X Top-10 finishes in this 11 year span.

Katie Spencer leading a pack with 600m remaining with Paige Henker, Jonah Weeks and Shannon Rich in arears.

Jonah Weeks leading Paige Henker and Shannon Rich up a hill late in the race.

Men’s 10K Championships: In my pre-race write-up I mentioned the phrase “dual meet” when referring to the race that would likely take place among the lead of the men’s regional 10k race. Even I was surprised at just how true these words ended up becoming. The pre-race plan was for Isaac Chavez to focus on covering the moves of standout performers Barak Watson of Northwest Nazarene (Willamette Invite Champion) and Micah Chelimo (Alaska’s undefeated Kenyan) while the rest of our group would run as a pack, covering the moves of Alaska’s main group. One kilometer into the race the plan was going to form with all seven ‘Cats running together among a 20+ person lead pack (along with AK’s top 6). By 2k the big pack had dropped a few hopefuls, but still ran 20+ strong with Alaska’s top 6 and Chico’s entire 7 running comfortably among the bunched group. With each kilometer run, a few more athletes would gradually unhitch from the group, including UAA’s Jacob Parisian (17th at NCAA’s as a frosh 2 years ago). By 4k Alaska had only 5 among the lead pack, and Chico still had all 7 attached. The question now was “when would Chelimo or Watson make a move to break up the group?” This was answered during the 6th kilometer when Chelimo made a strong push off the front. Watson and Chavez followed, and now the expected 3 man race for the individual title had begun. As athletes from the pack tried to bridge the gap to the leading trio, the once tight lead pack splintered into immediate sub-groups. The result was a very interesting scenario for the team title. Each mini-pack seemed to contain 1-2 Chico runners and at least 1 Anchorage athlete, creating a Very tight match race over the second half of the race. The first chase pack was the trio of Alaska’s Alfred Kangogo (4th year Jr), Connor Kasler (Jr.-Western Oregon), and Chico’s RS Frosh Johnny Sanchez. The next group had Alaska’s Yonatan Yilma, Chico’s Adrian Sherrod and Joseph Rivera and St. Martin’s Kyle Van Santen. The final main group that held the final scorers from both AK and Chico squads had UAA’s standout frosh Dylan Anthony (a Chico State runner 1 year ago before transferring to UAA), Isaac Kangogo from Alaska (Alfred’s younger brother) and Chico’s Joey Kochlacs, Dayne Gradone and Anthony Costales. Despite outnumbering the Seawolves among the lead packs 7-5, the ‘Cats were on the ropes a bit as the race wore on. Chavez looked solid running among the lead trio throughout, but Chelimo’s closing speed was a bit of a mystery. The much older Alfred Kangogo split from Chico’s frosh standout Sanchez, leaving Johnny in no-man’s land as he headed into the final 2k. Adding to the drama, Yonatan Yilma, AK’s #3 had broken his group up and now ran as the top #3 runner in the field ahead of Chico’s Sherrod and Rivera. To make matters worse, UAA’s Anthony had also broken from his Chico pursuers by several meters. This was as tight a regional race as I’d ever witnessed and it was literally looking like it would come down to who could out-kick who in the final meters of the race.

The men’s pack early in the race. The entire ‘Cats 7 running among the Top-10 overall

Joey Kochlacs attempting to outsprint Isaac Kangogo down the stretch

The final 400m of the course is basically a long horse-shoe shaped stretch of grassy path with about 40-50m of grassy knoll between the two stretches and a hard right turn at the top end of the ‘shoe that the athletes have to negotiate before making the final 170m sprint to the finish. Going into the turn Isaac ran in third position on the heels of Watson who was following Chelimo closely. Chelimo slightly gapped the pair rounding the turn, and Isaac was somewhat impeeded by the slower turn made by Watson. As the three rounded the turn, Chelimo had a defined lead over Chavez and Watson. Having pretty swift closing speed Isaac made a hard move into the straight, only to find that Chelimo also has great leg-speed. Meters were made up, but the finish would come just a few seconds too early as Chelimo broke the tape less than a second ahead of Chavez. The loss up front was twice as tough because Isaac had missed a regional title by less than 1 second after 30 minutes of running, and of course AK had 1 point in the bank for team purposes. Watson would finish a very strong third some three seconds off the pair ahead. Alaska’s Kangogo would easily take the fourth spot, followed by Western Oregon’s #1 Connor Kasler who finished 5th. Red-shirt freshman, Johnny Sanchez would finish an impressive 6th overall, holding off St. Martins’ Kyle Van Santen who had caught him with 2k remaining in the race. Alaska’s #3 Yonatan Yilma would take the 8th spot, followed by Chico’s #3/4 runners Adrian Sherrod and Joseph Rivera who took 9th and 10th respectively. Now the ‘Cats had 4 in, to AK’s 3, but several match races in the front had been won by the Seawolves of course. From 1 mile out I had a feeling that Joey Kochlacs HAD to catch and pass the tiring Dylan Anthony who was running as AK’s #4. Although Anthony had formed a 15-20m lead on the tall senior from Chico, Joey rallied hard to finally catch Dylan with 400m remaining. This was huge, But, along the way, Alaska’s Freshman Isaac Kangogo was also making a move of his own, and was now catching Joey as the the trio rounded the final turn before the 170 meter finishing stretch. Off the final turn Joey (who has great closing speed) looked like a lock to take care of the Alaskan Duo, but the little known Kangogo apparently has some gears of his own.. and the 6’2 Kenyan took Kochlacs at his own game, outsprinting him over the final 40m. Dylan Anthony would finish 3 seconds later as the Seawolves fifth at 13th overall. Chico’s #6 Dayne Gradone would finish next at 14th and Anthony Costales was the ‘Cats #7 at 17th overall. Even with 5 in before AK’s 5, and 7 before AK’s 6th, the ‘Cats had lost too many of the personal battles within the race, and the result was a devastating 2 point loss (37-39). Before the 20th person had crossed the line the announcer was touting Alaska as the team champions, and the look of shock and surprise was evident on all of the ‘Cats faces. We’d been beaten by AK for the second straight year in another nail biter (team score 2010: 49-54 for Alaska) Given just how close this race was, and the fact that we’d put 7 in the Top-20, made it very difficult to comprehend. Either way, we’ll have another shot at Alaska and the rest of the NCAA in two weeks on the same course. Hopefully this one has a happier ending for the guys.