Wildcat second stringers aren't to be fiddled with B teamers perform well at Bronco Invitational

By Gary Towne, Chico State head coach Saturday October 13, 2012

The entire Chico Crew, post-race.

Santa Clara, California -- Resting the Top-7 for both genders, the Chico State men’s and women’s team had a great opportunity to highlight the depth of their rosters by competing against “A” squads from many other schools at Santa Clara’s Bronco Invitational. The ‘Cats #8-#17 women finished 14th in the Invitational race, barely losing to DI “A” teams from Idaho State, Sac State, and Santa Clara. The ‘Cats #18-#26 runners finished an impressive 4th overall in the Open race, outdistancing several A teams from our own conference, as well as numerous other teams. The most impressive run was by the Chico 8-17 guys, who managed a third place finish in the Invitational race losing only to USF and UC Davis’ A squads. The Chico “B” squad managed to put their fifth runner across the line before ANY other squad in the field, losing the race only because they lacked a few low sticks. In fact the men’s team lost to UC Davis by only 30 points. The cherry on the sundae came in the form of our 4 red shirting true frosh men who each placed among the Top-5 overall in the Men’s Open race. It was a great day for the ‘Cats and certainly highlights what the future has in store for the program.

Women’s Open 5K: The women’s open 5k began the day, and true frosh Haley Kroll a product of Tokay HS in Stockton (who is redshirting) operated near the front throughout. As Kroll moved up from the 10-20 range from the mile mark, to her eventual 4th place finish (18:08-PR), fellow red shirts Julie Finn (Oroville HS) and Bailey Henshaw ran well among the top ¼ of the field. Uniformed athletes were led by RS Frosh Xiang Tak who would finish 31st in the 190+ runner field. It would take less than 20 seconds for the ‘Cats five scorers to hit the tape after Tak. This quick spread helped the Chico #3 team to an eventual 4th place team finish behind only USF’s B squad, SF State’s A squad, UCLA’s #3 team, and ahead of A teams from San Jose State, Sonoma State, CSU Monterey, Santa Cruz, and a number of others. A very nice run for a youthful line-up that gained some nice scoring opportunities that aren’t often present in the deep Wildcat line-up. Women’s 5k Invitational: The Women’s Invitational field was solid with A squads from the defending NAIA Champion San Marcos, NCAA DI’s New Mexico State, Idaho State, Sac State, Long Beach State, St Mary’s, Fullerton, and B squads from UCLA, Colorado and of course the Chico State Wildcats. A year ago the Chico women finished a well beaten 18th in the deep field, but this year would be a different story. Although the ‘Cats defeated only 2 squads, they improved their average time from 18:34 to 18:12, and the final score was much closer than the 2011 version. RS Frosh Bekah Bahra led the charge with her 17:49 5k PR. Bahra’s time would have been the third fastest on our squad when compared to 2010 when the ‘Cats A squad competed on the same layout en route to their eventual 5th place NCAA finish. Defending CCAA 10k champ Jessica Varela (So) spent much of this summer battling lingering hamstring troubles and missed much of the prescribed training. Now with a good number of consistent weeks behind her Jess’ running is coming around, and on Saturday it showed. Jessica hit the tape in an XC 5k PR of 18:05 and earned her spot on the ‘Cats stout CCAA line-up. Perhaps the most consistent and most improved performer on the squad is Hilary LaBelle. The Senior transfer from Orange Coast College missed much of the ’11 season with injury but has consistently been among the ‘Cats top runners in the 2012 season. On Saturday Hilary logged a nice 18:12 PR and raced herself into the CCAA championships as well. A year ago it took an 18:31 5k to snag a spot on the ‘Cats eventual CCAA champion line-up and this year 18:12 will be the final piece to the puzzle. RS Frosh Jordan Walsh ran 19:38 on the Santa Clara course a year ago while red shirting. This year the Hart HS alum hit an 18:27 PR. Last year’s CCAA frosh of the year Tiffany Heflin closed out the ‘Cats scoring with her 18:29 (89th place) run. Also well under the 19 minute mark were frosh Quetta Peinado and Lora James. The ‘Cats 14th place finish discounted the quality of this effort. The 18:12 team average matched that of 6th place Colorado (B), and as mentioned previously, was a huge improvement over the ’11 ‘Cats’ team average.

Bekah Bahra (mid frame) enjoyed her best race in a Wildcat uniform hitting an impressive 17:49 for the 5k course.

Quetta Peinado drafts behind Jessica Varela (160) and Hayley Swanson (157) just a kilometer into the women’s Invite Race. Varela would go on to run an 18:05 XC PR.

Men’s 8k Invitational: A year ago the Wildcat men’s B squad took 16th out of the 18 competing teams, just days before placing 10 guys into the top-11 at the CCAA Championships. To be honest a Top-10 finish going into the weekend would have been a descent prediction for the crew that lined up for Chico on Saturday. This isn’t taking into consideration breakout races though, and the ‘Cats enjoyed plenty of these on Saturday. With few opportunities to prove their fitness prior to Saturday’s race, the hungry group went to work on the familiar Santa Clara layout. Junior Phil Graber led the ‘Cats charge through the majority of the race, which was hardly a surprise given that Phil has finished many workouts this season with our top group. Sickness had derailed his Stanford outing, but today he was determined to run hard and finish in the 24’s. Following somewhat closely throughout was Soph Jeremy Brummitt (11th at CCAA’s in ’11). Teammates Alex McGuirk, Dillon Breen and Rogan Meza ran about mid pack (155 in field) through much of the initial few miles, before moving up systematically. It’s quite doubtful that anyone in the field ran the final 2 miles as aggressively as Sophomore Alex McGuirk did. The Mountain View native seemed to catch fire shortly after 3 miles and within one loop he’d passed at least 25 athletes. With a quick final .97 miles tacked on, McGuirk sprinted down the final stretch, hitting the tape 33rd overall in a big 24:42 PR. The next 4 ‘Cat scorers would find the finish tape before 20 seconds had expired from the clock, as Graber held on to a 24:51 finish. Fellow soph Jeremy Brummitt crossed just a few ticks later, as did Dillon Breen (24:56). Rogan Meza closed out the ‘Cats scoring with his 57th place finish (25:00). For good measure Zack Zadrozna and Geoff Hull both ran 25:19 PR’s as well. The strong pack showing propelled this developing young group to a third place finish behind only USF and Davis’ A squads. With his 25:00 outing Rogan Meza made the ‘Cats the first team to put their fifth and final scorer across the line. The ‘Cats had also taken some nice scalps, like Sac State (A), Fresno State (A), Colorado (B), UCLA (B), New Mexico State (A), Idaho State (A), San Marcos (Ranked #2 in NAIA) and British Columbia (Ranked #5 in NAIA) etc… It goes without saying that this was a great outing for this group, and one that was much deserved. A race full of pleasant surprises.

Alex McGuirk (170) on his way to a huge PR (24:42) while pulling teammate Rogan Meza with him at mid race.

Dillon Breen battling at mid race with Sac State’s Dan Mitchell (sub 9 3200m in HS)

Men's Open 8K: Perhaps inspired by their older peers on the team, four red shirting true frosh from Chico State, Nick Grubiss, Jon Dileva, Omar Torres and Karsten Kaufman all looked years ahead of themselves as they comprised the lead pack for much of the final race of the day. During the penultimate mile Santa Clara alum Mike Helms joined the Chico quartet and started to press the pace. In the final mile Helms would pull away racing to victory, but the Chico frosh squad would hold on nicely finishing in places 2-5 with a nice 9 second 1-4 gap! Next up for the ‘Cats will be the CCAA Championships to be held this Saturday October 20 on the UCSD Campus. The ‘Cats will be heavy favorites to defend their titles from 2011, but nothing will be taken for granted. We hope to see some of our SD alum and supporters out and about on the course in La Jolla. Feel free to e mail me for more details, or go to UCSD’s Athletics website for specific info.