Monmouth, Oregon -- I'm pleased to announce that for the 16th straight season the Chico State men's and women's cross country teams will be concluding their seasons at the NCAA Championships. The Chico women advance to Joplin, MO after winning the West Region title on Saturday. The men would place a disappointing second at the regional behind rival Alaska Anchorage, but were safely among the top-4 teams to advance to the national meet in two weeks. For the women Saturday's victory was their sixth such title in the history of the program. The Chico men have now finished no worse than 2nd in the region in 14 consecutive years.

Before I begin the summaries on each race, I'd like to thank the alumni and supporters who came out to cheer on the 2015 'Cats to their solid races on Saturday. It took hearty fans to brave the rain storm that dumped a fair amount of the wet stuff during the men's race, and we're very grateful for your support!

Women's 6K Championship: The Chico women went into Saturday's race as the top seeded squad, but fully aware of the potential of many of the other top teams entered. GNAC Champs Alaska Anchorage appeared to be the largest threat on paper with much credit given to their Kenyan duo Joyce Chelimo and Carolyn Kurgat who had placed 1-2 overall in each of AK's races this fall. Other top teams on paper were GNAC runners up Western Washington, and PAC champs Cal Baptist. The women's 6k course consisted of four loops of a large field area adjacent to the Western Oregon University campus. Each loop varied from the one before and two included a rolling hills section that broke up the otherwise flat layout.

Loop one brought a fast early pace as leaders fought for position. The Chico pack ran between 40th-70th overall as they ran by yours truly at the first kilometer mark. With plenty of room to move throughout, the Chico women did a wonderful job of smoothing out the first several kilometers in order to save their legs for the final half of the run. By 3k a lead pack of 15 had formed and the 'Cats had 3 in this elite group with Sadie Gastelum, Quetta Peinado and McCall Habermehl tucked into 12th, 13th and 15th positions as they rounded one of the downhill turns. A fair number of spots were occupied by other teams' runners before Lora James, Alex Burkhart, Haley Kroll and Olivia Watt strode by between 40th-60th places. Some big work would need to be done over the final 3k, but the Chico women have been a solid second half team all season.

The final two loops of the race brought a continued improvement of places for the 'Cats top-5. Leading the charge as she's done much of the season was Sadie Gastelum. As Alaska's Kenyans surged from the field and the lead pack sorted themselves out over the closing kilometers Sadie carefully and steadily moved her way from a spot inside the top-10 to one inside the top-5. With a mile to go Sadie ran in third position and looked to be gaining on Kurgat, who ran in second place. Although she would fall 6 seconds short of catching Kurgat Sadie would cross the line third overall in a new 6k PR of 21:05 (meet officials announced the course to be 10 seconds long at the pre-meet meetings).

Quetta Peinado, closing quite well, raced home to an 8th place finish to come away with her best race of the season. CCAA Champ McCall Habermehl had never looked quite as sharp as she had at the CCAA run, but hung on strong for a 14th place finish. Storming over the final 3k was Haley Kroll who enjoyed a very strong 32nd place effort, narrowly missing Alaska's #3 Kimberly Coscia (a 10:18 3200m prep from Torrance, CA). Alex Burkhart would stop the 'Cats scoring with her 34th place finish which would easily seal the 'Cats eventual team title. Seniors Lora James and Olivia Watt struggled a bit with eventual 61st and 67th place finishes.

With their top-25 overall finishes Sadie, Quetta and McCall each earned All West Region honors. For Sadie and Quetta this would be their second such distinction, and for Habermehl her first. Both Kroll and Burkhart would miss All Region by 10 seconds or less. Overall it was another solid day for the 'Cats who would hold a strong 60 second 1-5 gap, even on a day when Sadie Gastelum enjoyed her best race yet.

Men's 10K Championship: The Chico men knew that they would have their hands full with the Alaska Anchorage team. With 4 Kenyans and a 29:20's 10k guy Dominic Notz (from Germany) leading the way, the 'Cats would most likely need to run their best race of the season just to uphold their #1 regional ranking. Cal Poly Pomona also lurked as a contender on a given day with their #8 NCAA ranking going into the championship.

The men's race started at a very aggressive tempo as yours truly had the large lead pack hitting the mile between 4:40 and 4:45. Afterward the pack seemed to settle during the second and third miles, which seemed to allow several athletes who had trailed the group initially to hitch onto the talented pack. All seven Wildcats ran among this group, and it was obvious that Alaska and Pomona had at least 5-7 among the group as well.

As the race approached the mid way point Chico's Will Reyes took the lead and began to press on the accelerator. As Will shifted gears, the pack immediately began to string out, and now the race was truly on. While Steven Martinez tucked into a position near 10th overall, the remaining 'Cats fell into positions between 10th-20th overall and gaps quickly began to form. Both Pomona and Alaska had three athletes running ahead of Chico's Martinez, and both squads appeared to have numbers 4 and 5 running near the 'Cats final scorers. A quick score at 5k would have produced an Alaska lead, with Pomona second and Chico in third.

Will Reyes' unrelenting pace at the front quickly left him alone with the top regional returnees from last year (unfortunatley for the Wildcats, both run for Alaska Anchorage) Henry Chessetto and Dominic Notz. A chase pack of 10-12 followed some distance behind which contained Chico's Martinez and Pomona's top-3 runners, and Alaska's third. Running as Chico's third man was RS frosh Steven Velarde, who was the 'Cats final addition to the regional roster the week before. Aaron Mora followed closely just inside the Top-20 at 7k. Nick Valenzuela, Caton Avilla and Arturo Arevalo each looked more distressed than one would hope given the amount of running remaining, and the job left in front of them.

Reyes' hot pace from the front did a good job of separating the lead three from the pack behind, but not quite enough to rid himself of Chesetto and Notz who would both swing by and outkick Reyes over the final 200m. Pomona's athletes would take places 6,7 and 9 and Alaska's Edwin Kangogo would give the Seawolves a third ahead of Chico's second. Steven Martinez would place 10th and teammates Steven Velarde and Aaron Mora would hold off Alaska's #4 Victor Samoei as the trio would place 18th, 19th and 20th. Alaska would seal the eventual victory by placing their 5th and 6th across the line ahead of Chico's final scorer. Pomona would place their fourth across the line 2 seconds before Caton Avilla (Chico's fifth) would hit the tape and their (Pomona's) fifth would finish just 3 places behind.

All of this action and the subsequent wait for results and awards took place in a steady rain that had managed to hold off until just before the men's race started. As the results were finally announced, the Chico men were disappointed to hear of their second place finish, yet at the same time relieved to know that Pomona hadn't beaten them.

By virtue of their Top-25 finishes Will Reyes, Steven Martinez, Steven Velarde, and Aaron Mora each earned All West Region honors. One interesting tidbit taken from gleaning the results of the men's run was that close to half (11/25) of the All Region runners were International athletes, which is showing the ever changing landscape of the West Region as top NAIA teams (i.e Simon Fraser) join the fold, while others (notably Alaska Anchorage and Academy of Art) continue to look overseas for talent. Despite the rough race effort for the Chico men, they once again head to the NCAA Championships, and with some extra motivation to back them up as they bounce back from their toughest outing of the season.

For those keeping track of the fast times posted on Saturday. While addressing the coaches at the pre-race coaches meeting meet officials stated that the men's course was approximately 100m short of 10k. The women's course measured 3.83 on our garmin's and meet officials stated that it did indeed measure a touch long. Even given these tidbits of information, the West Region is becoming faster each year with this influx of talent.

Next up: NCAA Championships - Joplin, MO Saturday Nov. 21.