Palo Alto, CA -- The Stanford Invitational has long stood as an NCAA simulation of sorts for the 'Cats. The large talented fields, coupled with a highly charged atmosphere gives competitors a good taste of what to expect once they toe the line in the championship races deep into the season. This year was no different as both Chico squads were faced with fast and furious early paces and plenty of competition to chase after. Another common theme at Stanford has been consistently high placings by the Chico State harriers. Despite a terrible start by the Chico men's squad the men battled back and placed 3rd overall in the 20+ team field. The Chico State women enjoyed a solid showing while placing 5th overall behind only DI's Stanford, Sac State, Utah and Loyola Marymount.
Men's Invitational 8K: As previously mentioned, the Chico men struggled to gain early positions near the front of the field. Only Senior Isaac Chavez and Junior Johnny Sanchez put themselves among the top 30-40 in the early going. The remaining 8 'Cats were effectively buried in the middle of a very large pack. Watching the race evolve from the outside was frustrating given that DII rival Colorado School of Mines enjoyed a solid start and ran mostly unimpeded among the top-50 from the gun.
Meanwhile out toward the front, Chavez was tucked in nicely among a lead pack of big name runners, most of whom were Stanford affiliated. As the race evolved Isaac did a great job of sticking with the pace of the leaders until some final moves separated the group for good. Isaac would finish strong holding off Southern Oregon's 14:03 5k guy Eric Avila for 6th place. Isaac's time was only 10 seconds off the winning mark of Stanford's Erik Olson.
Forced to play "catch up" the entire 8k, the Chico pack hammered through the middle miles, but were relatively tired and frustrated by the process in the late going. Nevertheless teammate Dayne Gradone did work extremely hard to extricate himself from mid pack hell in the early going, to finally make his way into the Top-20 overall. A strong finish run gave Gradone a 16th place overall finish, a nice improvement over last year's 33rd place showing on the Farm. Another huge improvement over last year came in the form of Johnny Sanchez' 24th place run, no doubt aided by his aggressive start. Senior Alfonso Cisneros passed nearly 100 athletes en route to an eventual 30th place showing, but there's little doubt that the gritty McFarland HS alum could have placed higher had he put himself closer to the front from the gun.
The same could be said for the remaining 'Cat finishers who unfortunately all finished about 15-20 seconds off the pace of their Colorado School of Mines' counterparts. As the dust had settled the Mines' squad defeated the 'Cats by 4 points in the Non DI scoring, and closer to 10 in the mixed scoring. One interesting comparison was that of the uber-close team times between Mines and Chico. When adding up the combined times of both squads' top 5 runners only 2 seconds separated the two DII rivals. This battle of course will surely be replayed in Spokane in late November with much more on the line, and hopefully the 'Cats learn from the tough outing today.
Women's Invitational 6K: Having watched the men's race unfold, the Chico women knew the importance of getting themselves out relatively well in the early going. Senior Ayla Granados led the charge from the start putting herself among the top 40 in 200+ runner field from the start. Sara Miksell started some distance back but was still in a position not to be impeded by slowing runners ahead of her as she started her usual trek toward the front in the middle kilometers. Sophomores Rebekah Bahra and Quetta Peinado were out well running inside the top third of the field by the first kilometer mark but Peinado took a hard fall soon after and lost places and valuable momentum. The #2 runner for the 'Cats in Seattle never seemed to recover fully from the fall and ended with a tougher result than she's used to having. A large pack of Wildcats hammered away through the tougher stages of the race and moved well through a tiring field. Junior Bailey Henshaw who's made some huge strides as an XC runner this season led the way for this group.
Holding on nicely over the final kilometer Ayla Granados would star the Chico scoring with her 21st place effort. Only 12 seconds behind was teammate Sara Mikesell who placed 30th respectively. Nearly 30 athletes crossed the line before the 'Cats #3 Bailey Henshaw would, but thankfully #'s 4 and 5 would each finish within 8 seconds of Bailey. Perhaps the most surprising result from this group was that of Sadie Gastelum who a year ago might have been the 'Cats #20ish runner. Today she stepped onto the Stanford stage and ran as a scoring runner, only 6 seconds back from teammate Bekah Bahra who was an All CCAA and All West Region runner a year ago. Jessica Varela who's dealt with an assortment of physical ailments this summer enjoyed her best outing of the season to date with her 75th place run. Although she's not at 100 percent yet, progress is being made.
The solid pack run earned the 'Cats a bit of revenge over the same Simon Fraser squad that beat us for the win at the Sundodger meet two weeks ago in Seattle. Given that SF is now a DII west regional opponent, this was a nice win for the Lady-Cats. In the combined scoring the Chico women appear to have placed 5th out of the 26 competing teams. Overall another solid showing for both squads and some valuable experience as they look ahead to the Championship season that awaits. Next up: For the 'Cats will be the Triton Classic on October 12 hosted by UC San Diego.
Willow Hills Open:
Yesterday I sent out a pretty lengthy write-up on our teams' performances at this weekend's Stanford Invitational where our top squads each placed among the top-5 teams overall. Unfortunately for deep squads like ours Stanford only allows 10 athletes maximum to compete in their Invitational, and unlike years ago when they ran "open" races to accommodate larger rosters, they have cut out the second races altogether. Because it's very important to us that Everyone is able to compete and develop we added an additional meet to our schedule this year.. The Willow Hills Open, which is a Pacific Association USATF series event set up more for Northern California club runners and post-collegiates. The Folsom races were staged on the very challenging 5k layout adjacent to Folsom High School. The Willow Hills course has served as the host venue for the Sac Joaquin Section HS Championships for a number of years now, and is a very established route. Assistant coaches Hillary LaBelle and Anthony Costales drove two vans full of uniformed Chico athletes to the races, while a number of our frosh who are red shirting, made the trek down on their own to sharpen their racing skills as well. Overall the results were quite promising for this group as both men's and women's squads posted some great marks and placings overall. I'll give a short summary of each race below and will provide a link to the results, since I wasn't able to cut and paste them as I usually do for my write-ups.
Men's 5k: Chico Affiliated athletes would take 13 of the top 17 places in the men's 5k race. Led by Wildcat alumnus Anthony Costales and Brendan Scanlon (finished 1-2 overall) the guys packed in Very well. Falco Digiallonardo who has 4 years of XC and track eligibility remaining would place 3rd overall in 15:56, and Junior Geoff Hull would place 4th in 16:00. Red shirt fosh Andrew Cobourn backed up his breakout Seattle race with another big effort while placing 5th overall in 16:05.
After a few non Chico affiliated runners squeezed through the line, Rogan Meza (Senior) would place 8th in 16:11. Red shirting frosh Ricky Sweet was our first true frosh to finish, crossing the line in 9th (16:13). Junior teammate Tommy McGuan would stop the clock just a few tics behind while finishing 10th overall respectively. Overall the men's race was a very promising run for the 'Cats.
A 26 second 1-5 split for the uniformed men shows how strong of a pack we have, and of course there were a number of red shirting younger athletes in the mix, which is a great sign for the coming years.
Women's 5k: Making it a clean sweeps for Wildcat Alum, former Chico standout Lindsay Nelson-Tollefson won the women's race with a blazing 18:06 mark. The Olympic Trials marathon participant appears to be in great shape as she ramps up for attacks at the longer distance races this Fall. Current assistant and '13 alum Hillary LaBelle would place 7th overall with a 19:05 final mark.
The first Wildcat in uniform to hit the finish was RS Frosh McCall Habermehl, who just might be our most improved athlete this year. McCall's 19:16 mark was 2 minutes faster than her time on the same layout during her senior year of high school and is further substantiation of her consistent hard work and dedication to improvement. Sophomore teammates Jackie Mansoor and Olivia Watt followed closely with 19:26 and 19:28 marks respectively. Tiffany Heflin would finish as the #4 'Cat today in 19:34, and true frosh Madison Grenier would close out the scoring with her 20th place run. The nice steps forward made by Habermehl, Mansoor and Watt were definitely the highlights of the women's run in Folsom. A 45 second 1-5 was also a nice achievement for this young group.
Unfortunately since I wasn't at the Willow Hills event, I don't have photos to share. Next up: Thankfully All travel squad athletes will be able to participate Together in the same races next week at the Triton Invite in San Diego. The SD event will serve as our final tune-up for the post season, as we'll then have a week off before we host the CCAA Championships here at Hooker Oak Park in Chico!!!
