Palo Alto, CA -- The Chico State men's and women's XC teams opened up their seasons with split squads this past weekend. The top-10 athletes in uniform ran in the Stanford Invitational, while a good portion of the remainder of the team ran in Folsom's Willow Hills Open (a PA USATF series race). We'll start with the Stanford runs, and move on with short re-caps of Folsom as well. At Stanford, the men enjoyed a very solid run while finishing 4th overall out of the 39 competing squads. The women also enjoyed a commendable performance, finishing 13th out of 40 teams respectively. Because our season will conclude two weeks later this season, Stanford was our opening race. Stepping directly into this type of environment, when most other squads were in their second or third competition of the fall, created a larger challenge than Stanford normally poses. Thankfully our athletes responded well and we came away with another fun morning on the Stanford University Golf Course.

Men's Invitational 8K: The Wildcat Men would be running without 2 time All American Johnny Sanchez who had student teaching obligations on Saturday. To stack things against us a bit more than normal, we have been hit by the injury and sickness bug pretty hard the past week. Nick Spector, who finished among our top group in our pre-season time trial was quite sick at mid week, and it showed on Saturday as he finished more than a minute off the pace of his teammates. Ryan Rampoldi who also ran 24:50's in our time trial was unable to finish, as a calf issue negated his early season fitness. But for all of the cards that were stacked against the guys, others stepped up to the plate to get the job done.

A year ago at Stanford our men were completely buried in the early going of the race and as a result, lost a close battle with DII foe Colorado School of the Mines. This year, the number one goal was Not to make this same mistake and to establish early positioning. As the lead pack approached yours truly at the ½ mile mark, Chico was definitely leading the race as the 'Cats entire 10 ran among the Top 20 overall. There was much running ahead, but it was clear that the Chico men had were ready to put themselves into the race from the start this year. In doping out the race beforehand I had figured that 5 schools would fight for top spots in the field and this definitely came to fruition. Stanford, Washington State, Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and Chico State all had top runners among the top groups throughout the race and were clearly duking it out for the top team spots. The quick early pace took it's toll on a few, (especially Nick and Ryan who were sick and injured), but the guys fought hard to maintain spots among the top groups.

The best at making the fast start "stick" was newcomer Brandon Taylor who has just transferred in from Cerritos College this fall. Although Brandon hasn't separated himself from his peers in training, he was unafraid to remain attached to the top chase pack for much of the race, which was composed of a pretty select group of runners, including a few sub 14 minute 5k types (like Washington State's Drew Jordan). Taylor would eventually slip from the group, but damage control over the final 1.5 miles was solid and he would finish 14th overall in 24:06. Also making great races stick were seniors Dillon Breen and Alan Cuevas. Both have endured tough seasons w/ some injuries, and at times buried by the deep Wildcat pack. On Saturday they both ran with a noticeable purpose and neither gave up an inch to their competitors as the race wore on. Another great performance was turned in by RS Frosh Kyle Medina. The 1:53 prep 800m guy looked like a grizzled xc vet on Saturday, passing 20+ runners over the final 2k en route to an eventual 30th place finish overall.

As runners swarmed the finish stretch it was evident that Stanford, Washington State and Santa Barbara were running quite close in the team battle, and it appeared that SLO and Chico would be fighting for fourth place. The first three teams all had several low sticks among the top. The 'Cats would be the second team to finish all five scoring runners (behind only Washington State) but was the only team in the top group without a Top-10 finisher. As the dust had settled and the scores were tallied Washington State was the surprise victor, with UCSB finishing second, and Stanford (running a mix of A and B team members) finished third. Chico would outdistance SLO by 19 points for fourth place. As mentioned previously in this note, the top-5 teams in the field were so separated from the rest of the pack that SLO's 5th place tally of 139 points was a whopping 161 points ahead of 6th place University of San Francisco.

Overall this was a nice run by the Chico men. A fast early start put them in positions, and they fought hard through some self induced pain, to earn a very good team finish. A 30 second 1-5 within a very competitive and deep field is also a good sign of potential as this group moves ahead. And of course Johnny Sanchez will re-join the fold in the coming weeks of racing.

Unofficial Men's Team Scores: (Tallied by yours truly, as Stanford scored Non-DI's separately unfortunately) 

1. Washington State              89
2. UCSB                          91
3. Stanford                     102
4. Chico State                  120
5. Cal Poly SLO                 139
6. Univ. of San Francisco       300
7. UC San Diego                 301
8. UC Davis                     310
9. Loyola Marymount             347
10. Claremont Mud-Scps          369
39 Total Teams  Competed

Women's Invitational 6K: Comparatively the women's field was much deeper than the guys' so we knew that just breaking into the top-10 would take a solid day at the office for the Lady-'Cats. We also knew that the start would be an important piece to the puzzle, so as with the men, pre-race talks centered on getting out well and then doing a good job of racing within the upper ¼ of the field. Unfortunately the women struggled to get out on Saturday, and after a mile had been covered the top Chico women ran at mid-field out of 330 runners. There was a lot of work left ahead of us if we were to finish among the top-10.

As the race rolled on, the women fought successfully to gain positioning and places. Quetta Peinado led the charge, moving through over 100 runners between the mile mark and the finish. Sadie Gastelum also looked very composed and controlled the entire race as she methodically worked her way through the pack, eventually finishing 58th overall respectively. The remaining 'Cats took some good steps forward from 1k to 4k, but then appeared to hit a bit of a wall from the effort it had taken to get themselves closer to the front. They now were settled in among the masses, and positions were no longer being gained.

At the finish Quetta Peinado would lead the 'Cats scoring charge, finishing 31st overall with a time just under the 22 minute barrier. Sadie Gastelum would finish as the 'Cats 2nd, some 30 seconds behind and 58th overall. Nearly 50 athletes would hit the finish before #3 Camila Turati (a true frosh) would cross the line 102nd overall. Rebekah Bahra and Lora James would finish the 'Cats scoring finishing 110th and 112th respectively.

Despite the sub-par team performance the Wildcat women would still manage to just nip CCAA foe UCSD in the non DI scoring race, as well as regional foe Simon Fraser. When tallying the combined scores with DI included, the 'Cats take 13th overall out of the 40 competing teams. There's no doubt that from the outside looking in, this is a good showing for a DII team, but of course our bar is always set high and were hoping to have a better day on Saturday. Thankfully this was just our first race of the year, and there's plenty of training and racing ahead, to hone in on the type of performances that we'll need to challenge for top NCAA honors once again this season. Watch for this same group of women to rebound this next Saturday at Willamette University, where they'll compete in the Jim Bowles Invitational.

Unofficial Combined Team Scores-Women's 6k 

1. Stanford              72
2. Cal Poly SLO         119
3. UC Davis             136
4. Loyola Marymount     139
5. Washington St.       166
6. UC Riverside         256
7. U of Victoria        296
8. Sacramento St.       337
9. San Diego St.        339
10. USC                 351
11. Fresno St.          361
12. UCSB                368
13. Chico State         380
14. UC SD               405
15. North Dakota St     462
(40 Teams Total)

Willow Hills Open: Given that Stanford only allows 10 athletes per team to compete, a good percentage of the remainder of our team (including red shirts) competed in the Willow Hills Open race in Folsom, CA. This event is a part of the PA USATF XC Series that is set up primarily for post collegiate club runners. Thankfully race organizers welcomed our athletes, and they performed quite well on the very challenging 5k layout.

Leading the charge for the men was Barron Maizland who ran a solid 15:50 mark for second place overall. Red shirting frosh Arturo Arevalo also showed great fitness with his 15:57 mark, which was good for third overall. Fellow true frosh Derek Morton would grab 4th place with a 16:00 effort. All told the 'Cats would put 7 in the top 10 (counting our red shirts) overall.

The women also enjoyed a solid early season outing as true frosh Alex Burkhart led the charge while placing 3rd overall (19:18). Red shirting true frosh Nicole Anthony finished 6th overall in 19:32 respectively.