Spokane, WA -- The Chico State men's and women's cross country teams scored a pair of 6th place NCAA finishes at this past weekend's championship meet held in Spokane, Washington. The Chico women enjoyed a solid day overall and were rewarded with the program's 12th straight Top-10 finish at the national championship meet.
Although the men had matched the women's performance with their 15th straight Top-10 showing at the big dance, it was a bitter sweet day given the expectations that the group had coming into the meet. Still, both groups have much to be thankful for as they reflect back upon another amazing season of high level running.
Women's 6K: With temperatures hovering at around 28 degrees at the start of the women's race the Chico women took to the Spokane course for the second time in two weeks. Having been collectively buried in the opening stretch of the regional run, the 'Cats made a concerted effort to try to get out better, but still struggled to some degree. Ayla Granados spearheaded the 'Cats efforts from the front, placing herself among the top 40 by the kilometer mark. The rest of the 'Cats followed some distance back with no other Chico runner among the top 100 with 5k remaining. Each of the Wildcat ladies made good work in the following 2k passing a athletes as the opportunities presented themselves.
At 3k (chip splits are listed in the results for each athlete) Ayla ran in 16th overall, Sara Mikesell-75th, Bekah Bahra (95th), Haley Kroll 100th, and Bailey Henshaw 111th. My best guess is that we'd moved from 18th-20th overall at the mile, to around 13th by mid race. Our scorers would collectively shave a whopping 97 points off the team score over the final 3k of running to eventually score the 6th place team placing.
Granados fought hard through the middle kilometers running between 16th-19th, before giving up some spots over the final 2 kilometers. Despite losing 8 spots between 3k to the finish Ayla's toughness and determination would earn her a well deserved 26th place finish and gave the 'Cats a valuable low number in the 250 runner field. Her top-40 run would also earn the Castro Valley HS alum her first All American honor.
Doing some really big work behind her were teammates Mikesell, Kroll, Henshaw, and Bahra. This quartet passed 98 athletes (collectively) in the final 3 kilometers. Mikesell, who never looked quite as sharp as she had a year ago in Joplin, still managed to pass 28 athletes in the final 11 minutes of running. Frosh teammate Haley Kroll would actually top this number, pulling past 36 athletes over the final 11 minutes, en route to her eventual 61st place finish. Bailey Henshaw (an 800m specialist on the oval) had equal success over the final half passing 31 athletes herself. Rebekah Bahra had an "off" day and still managed to improve her time from the regional race on the same course, while also improving her placement by 3 over the final half of the run. Jessica Varela moved from 109th to 97th as the 'Cats #6, while slicing 30 seconds off her regional mark. Perhaps the only real "rough outing" of the day was that of frosh Sadie Gastelum who had enjoyed an amazing season leading up to the NCAA run. At the regional Sadie was the 'Cats third finisher, but the youngster never looked well on Saturday finishing 156th overall.
For the Wildcat women, Saturday's run was the culmination of a solid season that saw no less than 10 different Wildcats score for the team between the 6 races. We lost several to season ending injuries, but still managed to win the CCAA title, narrowly miss the regional title, and eventually finish 6th at the NCAA meet. It's been a great season and Saturday was a hard fought and well earned national finish.
Men's 10K: After watching the regional run, yours truly knew that a better day would be needed at the NCAA's if we were to contend for a trophy. Several of the Wildcat men never really looked engaged and racing during the regional championship, which caused a usual 1-5 of well under a minute, to balloon to nearly 2 minutes. RS frosh Aaron Mora was subbed into the NCAA competition for Alex McGuirk, who'd had really rough CCAA and regional runs. Unfortunately even the injection of new blood into the line-up couldn't stimulate life in our 5-7 runners, and that would ultimately be the toughest part of the 'Cats not achieving their goals on this day.
A year ago the Chico men failed to put themselves in the NCAA race in the early going, and never quite caught the packs that they were hoping to run with (eventually missing a 4th place trophy by 1 point). This year the 'Cats established solid early placements among the field and went to work against those around them. Isaac Chavez once again led the group, putting himself in a lead pack that included all of the pre-race favorites. Not far behind at the kilometer mark was Johnny Sanchez and Dayne Gradone. Alfonso Cisneros looked solid near the Top-50 at the same early checkpoint.
Despite getting out well in the initial stretch Senior Aaron Thomas was already falling from this group as he appeared to be moving backward through the field, even before the mile marker had been reached. Not looking much better was Phil Graber and Aaron Mora who's facial expressions reflected the difficulty of racing in such a large and talented field.
Just before the 5k mark the lead pack began to splinter and Isaac Chavez was cast off the back, now running in 10th overall. Johnny Sanchez looked strong as he operated in a pack around 25th position. In the third kilometer Dayne Gradone started to fall from Johnny's heels and by 5k he'd slid to 73rd overall. Teammate Alfonso Cisneros tried to rally Dayne as he battled around 40th throughout most of the run, but had no luck. Thankfully Dayne's slide stopped by 5k and some "self-spurring" allowed him to re-pass a few athletes during the second half to eventually save a 71st place finish.
Unfortunately #'s 5,6,7 'Cats continued to slide through the field until the finish, seemingly unable to rally themselves at any point of the race.
Over the final mile Isaac managed to catch and pass a few tiring athletes from ahead, while moving up to an eventual 8th place finish. Johnny Sanchez fought just as hard outkicking former teammate Dylan Anthony over the final stretch while placing 23rd overall. One of the most difficult things to witness on Saturday was the final mile of Senior Alfonso Cisneros. Cisneros, a walk-on from McFarland HS five years ago had positioned himself in 37th-38th place (inside the Top-40 All American zone) by 8k and looked composed and strong. Unfortunately a side stitch crept up on Fonz, and one by one athletes made their way by the struggling Chico athlete. Holding on as well as he could, Alfonso would cross the line 45th overall missing the final All American runner by less than 6 seconds.
Dayne Gradone would cross the finish 23 seconds later in 71st. If one was to start a stop watch at Dayne's finish, they would wait nearly a full minute before another Chico athlete would find the line. Over 70 athletes would finish during this stretch as well, which of course was very difficult to digest for everyone involved. With our final scorer finishing 145th overall, it was feared that our streak of Top-10 finishes might be at stake, but thankfully as the results were announced the Chico team had finished 6th overall.
Although it wasn't a great day, there were of course plenty of positives to take from the 2013 NCAA run. With his 8th place run Isaac Chavez joined Pat Boivin and Scotty Bauhs as the only 4 time All Americans in Chico State history. Issaac's average finish is the best between the three as the senior placed 5th, 3rd, 13th, and 8th at his four NCAA appearances. With his 23rd place effort Johnny Sanchez earned his second All American honor, and had it not been for his "off" 2012 season, Johnny would be on pace for four All American Awards as well. As previously mentioned this was the fifteenth straight Top-10 NCAA finish for the Wildcat men which is quite a feat, and one that we are extremely proud of.
