Louisville, KY -- When you become accustomed to annual success on the conference, regional and national level there's no denying the empty feeling in your gut when the reality of a Very tough day hits you. The 2014 'Cats took 15 and 12 year streaks of finishing among the Top-10 at the NCAA Championships to the line on Saturday, and perhaps the pressures of such credentials weighed us down a bit. Or perhaps the very Non California like wet/muddy conditions hurt our chances. Either way, it was a tough day at the office for athletes and coaches with the men's team finishing 14th and the women's team 13th at this weekend's national championships held in Louisville, KY.

For the men who had hoped to challenge for a trophy (awarded to top-4 teams) Saturday's run was far from the hoped mark. For the women who had endured what seemed like an endless list of setbacks going into and through the season, Saturday's effort wasn't far from what this coach thought they might be capable of with a solid effort. Though the women placed only 13th, they were 1 point behind 12th (Western Washington), 3 points from 11th, and 11 points from continuing their Top-10 streak. The difference between our 13th place day and a Top-10 run for the ladies was as small as 2 athletes running 3-5 seconds faster on a better day. Overall the results were tough to swallow for both groups, but with the good majority having eligibility remaining, the fire that a rough race can help to create, coupled with the experience gained from such a run, should go a long way in helping our chances in future championship runs.

Before diving into the men's race I have to paint a bit of a picture of what the fields were up against when tackling the Tom Sawyer State Park course. We were first able to get on the course on Thursday before the race. Given that the Louisville area had received a huge dousing of rain in the days leading up to our arrival the course was nothing short of a muddy mess during our first circuit around it. Two of our 7 women fell during our easy paced run on Thursday and most were covered in mud from near-falls during the 30min session. The rain was steady all day Thursday, and actually picked up Friday. Yours truly took pictures of the large puddles located in front of the team tents on Thursday thinking that this was a "defining" glimpse into what the course was like. Little did I know that the 3-4 inches of additional rain that were delivered on Friday night would create nothing short of a pond in front of the team tent area by Friday morning. As I toured the race route in the hours before the race, I realized that the course was twice as muddy as it had been Thursday. There was 6-8 inches of standing water on the start stretch that forced race officials to move teams from boxes 1-6 to the other side of the start line. Then there was an area about 1k into the race where 5-6 inches of flowing water crossed the course. Only 15-20 meters past this spot there was a 3-5 inch pool of standing water that would also have to be passed through. This is just a glimpse of a few parts of the 5-6k layout that the women circumnavigated once, while the men would enjoy it twice.

Men's 10K Championship: (the course actually was closer to 6mi due to a deletion of a small section of the 5k loop course that was traversed twice)
Pre-race talks in the team meeting the evening before highlighted the need for getting ourselves out and in the mix from the start. In such mucky conditions there was no doubt that it would be extremely difficult to chase competitors down if large early gaps formed. It was hoped that the excitement of being able to race on such a sloppy cross country layout (something new for CA kids) would outweigh.. well, the fact that none of our kids had experience racing on such a course before now. In hindsight, While I think our chances would have been better if we'd have had some better footing out there, cross country is cross country and everyone has to deal with the conditions present that day. Our men's woes were in all likelihood rooted in not reacting well to the role of being a favorite for a trophy than they were by the loose footing.

With ½ inch spikes locked into the bottom of their shoes the men's race went off without a hitch. The Chico men initially got out well racing down the muddy start stretch, but unfortunately a good number of them began to settle too much, and by the kilometer mark only 1-2 Wildcat men ran among the top 60-70. At this point the race is very much a connected group and the outcome certainly wasn't conceded by the Chico men.. But the following 3k stretch brought a purging of places by our main group, who ran by yours truly at 4k, spread out between 70th-120th places roughly. The exception to this was Senior Johnny Sanchez who was showing how he had twice before earned All American honors. Sanchez looked comfortable and controlled operating in the mid to high 20's overall through 5k.

As the Chico men ran by at 5k the look of defeat was painted on far too many faces and things didn't look promising for a second half rally unfortunately. The guys fought hard and less spots were given up during this half of the race, but the top teams had their guns placed well among the top ¼ of the field and too many of ours were operating at mid pack.

Johnny Sanchez' strong final mile would find him passing regional champ Henry Chesetto en route to an eventual 22nd place finish. Sanchez would be the first finisher from the West Region, and as previously mentioned earned him his 3rd All American award in the sport. He joins an elite group of former 'Cats to achieve this honor, including Scotty Bauhs, Pat Boivin and Isaac Chavez.

While Sanchez battled among an elite group near the front of the race RS frosh Kyle Medina (who had fallen back into the 80's overall at mid race) was taking places back as he was able. Medina looked relatively composed during the second half of the race and a good closing stretch would find him finishing 62nd overall respectively. Although this result wasn't what Kyle had hoped for, it wasn't too bad for a red shirt frosh with an 800 pedigree out of HS two years ago. Unfortunately for the rest of the Cats the closing effort was far from what we had hoped going into the race. RS frosh Nick Grubiss would find the finish next with his 93nd place showing respectively. Aaron Mora (118th) and Alex McGuirk (138th) would stop the bleeding with their disappointing days.

Given that only 2 of our 7 runners had previous NCAA XC experience we knew going in that a tough day could be a scary one if the guys didn't react well to their environment. This was indeed the case and unfortunately our Top-10 streak was dashed. Thankfully though, a good core of guys did gain some NCAA experience, and I'm confident that with these returners and an awesome group of developing guys back at home, that we'll be back among the NCAA's elite in 2015. (Also: we'll hope for better conditions in Joplin, MO in 2015)

Women's 6K Championship: The women's team was almost as green as the men's, as the 'Cats would send only three women to the line with any previous NCAA experience. They were also less than 100 percent healthy. At the start of the regional race Junior Olivia Watt (2:10/4:28/9:58 track PR's) strained her hamstring thus ending her race and season. McCall Habermehl was then scheduled to take her spot in the NCAA line-up, but then came word that she had picked up a bad case of Bacterial Bronchitis in the days following the regional championships. Our alternate (Lora James) was found to be anemic late in the season and struggled through CCAA and regional championship runs after finishing among the team's scoring 5 most of the season.

The list of setbacks didn't end there though as All Region runner Sadie Gastelum had become sick with a week-long illness that prevented her from completing any workouts between the regional and NCAA races. If the NCAA race had been a week earlier I'm convinced that we would have finished well outside the Top-20 teams.

Despite these setbacks and the mud filled course in front of them, the Chico women toed the line with high expectations. As the race started Junior Quetta Peinado did a wonderful job of placing herself among the Top 40-50 overall by the kilometer mark. Looking composed and full of run Peinado was positioned well to achieve her goal of being an All American (Top-40). Behind her, Quetta's teammates followed in positions all within the top half of the field. The opening stretch hadn't gone quite as well as hoped, but the women still had 4-5k of racing left in front of them, and the pack was still very tight.

At mid race the Chico women were definitely picking up steam. Peinado had moved into the low 30's overall, and Sadie Gastelum was moving well and apparently relatively recovered from the week long illness. True Frosh Alex Burkhart looked strong as well as she moved by runners with each passing kilometer.

Fellow true frosh Camila Turati appeared to be a bit off her "A Game" but she fought hard in the thick of the field through the mid race kilometers. Alternate Bailey Henshaw showed that her addition to the group was a valuable one as she looked strong and was also moving nicely through the field of tiring runners ahead.

However with Bekah Bahra struggling well back in the field along with teammate Lora James, it would be up to the aforementioned group to get the job done on this day.

With 1 mile to go Peinado was showing signs of fatigue as she had slipped just outside the Top-40. Sadie Gastelum and Alex Burkhart still looked strong entering the final 1 mile loop as each had moved up several spots since the previous checkpoint. With huge numbers operating in such a small window of time, the final kilometer would be a huge determinant to the outcome of the team race.

As athletes ran by yours truly at a point about 300m from the finish Quetta Peinado ran in 44th place overall but appearing fairly spent, and with a large group closing hard behind her. Unfortunately 8 of these runners would make their way past Peinado in the final stretch, but she would still hold on for a very commendable 52nd place finish. Despite the sickness and accumulated rust Sadie Gastelum closed well and finished 70th overall with a time of 22:37. Although she finished only 7 seconds behind her teammate, no less than15 athletes had finished between Gastelum and Alex Burkhart who would finish as the 'Cats #3 on this day. Finishing just 7 short seconds (but 18 team places later) would be senior Bailey Henshaw who would finish 104th overall respectively. Camila Turati would cross the line 8 seconds behind Henshaw, giving the 'Cats a decent 1-5 spread of :43 seconds.. but the heartbreaking statistic on this day were the 60 athletes that filled the short space of time between our scorers.

As the mud had settled the team scores were predictably very tight for places 10-14 with only 15 points separating this grouping. Finishing outside the Top-10 at the NCAA meet for the first time since 2001 was difficult to swallow, but given the circumstances the outcome was certainly no disaster.

The women return the entire NCAA group, minus Henshaw. In fact, the entire Top-13 (excluding Henshaw) from the 2014 team will return for the '15 season and a good portion of them will now have NCAA experience behind them.