Billings, MT -- A typical post championship write-up is generally not too difficult to put together, especially when one team won, and both advanced on to the NCAA Championships. but unfortunately nothing has been 'typical' or normal in the Chico area since Thursday November the 8th. Of course that was the morning that the Camp Fire started and quickly burned through the town of Paradise and many of the surrounding communities like Magalia, Centerville and Butte Creek Canyon. The fire has displaced thousands of folks, including the parents of our own Talia Swangler (who grew up in Paradise) and a number of Chico XC/Track alum, like Kim Ellison, Jim Estes, Seth Roberts, Vince Phipps, Stephanie Duntsch, along with countless others of course. The Chico community has rallied around our friends who have lost everything, and the outpouring of support has been nothing short of incredible and inspiring to be a part of.
With the air quality well above what is considered unhealthy, and with the campus shut down completely for over 2 weeks (no access to treadmills), the Wildcat XC crew relocated to Grass Valley for a 4 day window of mind-clearing and smoke free training. A big Thank You goes out to Deborah Curtis (Nora Pizzella's Mom) and the Selby family who took great care of us. The team then returned the Tuesday preceding our Thursday departure for the Regional Championships in Billings, Montana.
While a massive fire ravaged Butte County, the Wildcats stepped into a very different environment in Billings, where an inch of fresh snow fell the evening before the race and the high temps weren't suppose to reach 30 degrees.
Men's 10k Championship:
At the start of the men's race the temperature was 22 degrees, but the sun was out and there was little wind. Although conditions were much different than what we'd been training in, it could have been much worse.
After the predictably fast initial start stretch the men's 10k settled into a pace just above the 5 min per mile threshold. All seven Wildcat men operated among the lead group, looking quite comfortable.
Feeling quite well and ready for the 'real' racing to begin Jack Johnson and Eddie King took to the front of the field and injected some pace into the run at around the 5k mark. The move immediately stretched the field, and now a lead group that was 25 strong at 4k was quickly breaking into smaller sub-groups.
for the most part the Chico remaining 5 Chico men handled the surge well and by 7k, yours truly had enough confidence in the eventual outcome to text SID Extraordinaire Luke Reid to let him know that the Wildcat men had the race in hand.
By 8k the race for individual honors had boiled down to Chico's Eddie King and Alaska Anchorage's Felix Kemboi. King now controlled the pace trying to run the legs off Kemboi as he had to SF State's John Lawson while winning the CCAA title two weeks previous. Kemboi would prove to be a tough nut to crack though as the Kenyan covered each surge and looked strong as the two turned the corner to the final quarter mile sprint to the finish. With 150m remaining King managed to find one last gear that Kemboi couldn't quite match and a fraction of a second of separation had been reached as the two flew by yours truly with 100m remaining. King would hold the gear well over the final stretch to win the second race of his collegiate XC running career (CCAA's being his first). With the win King would earn the Coaches' Association's West Region athlete of the year honor. Quite an accomplishment for a runner who made his first regional roster just a year ago.
Another athlete who made his first regional roster a year ago was Jack Johnson. The fifth year senior would enjoy his best race to date, closing well and taking third overall. A year ago Wyatt Baxter was the 'Cats #8 man, and on Saturday the Simi Valley HS alum would finish 8th in the region as the 'Cats #3. Teddy Kassa, Luis Ortega and Jason Intravaia would cross in 13th, 14th and 15th positions, locking the 'Cats 14th regional title in 17 years. RS Frosh Jack Emanuel held on well over the final kilometers to take 18th while earning his first All West Region honor. All in all it was a very nice day for the Wildcat men who qualified for their 20th straight NCAA championship. All seven Chico men had earned All West Region recognition in some very Non-Chico like conditions. The group will enter next week's NCAA meet ranked 4th nationally and carrying an unbeaten streak into the final race of the season.
Women's 6k Championship:
The Chico women entered the weekend's championship ranked 1st regionally, but one of 8 nationally ranked teams. The West region is definitely the deepest in the NCAA and the Chico women would have their hands full in trying score the NCAA trophy that comes with a regional title these days. The top two threats to the 'Cats chances would be Alaska Anchorage and Simon Fraser. Anchorage has raced sparingly this season but has three standout Kenyans leading the charge. Simon Fraser had placed 2nd overall out of 28 DII teams at the Lewis Crossover meet earlier in the season and ran quite close with the Alaska team at their conference meet.
The women's run was predictably NOT tactical as the men's race had been in the early going. The top 6 Chico women did a masterful job of placing themselves in the early going, not buried, but not out too fast, (especially considering the 3,000ft+ of elevation in Billings). Number 7 runner Talia Swangler (who'd had a rough week leading up to Saturday's race) was buried in the field, but is a solid second half runner.
For the most part the race unfolded much like many have this season for the 'Cats with the exception of Karlie Garcia and Alex Tucker (The 'Cats 1 and 2 runners). Both had decent starts, but seemed to have a hard time engaging and moving up among the lead group. As it turns out Garcia was FREEZING the entire race and had a hard time functioning in the 25 degree cold. Tucker had strained a hamstring in the opening kilometer and ran most of the race enduring the added pain that a bum muscle can produce. The good news was with Garcia and Tucker a bit off their A game, our entire top-6 pack ran within steps of one another the entire race.
Desirae Jones, Nora Pizzella, Kayden Carpenter, and Haley Boynton pulled and pushed Tucker and Garcia, and together the Chico group moved up into the top 20-25 by the final stages of the race.
The bad news for the 'Cats title hopes was that Anchorage was running VERY well at the front of the race. The Seawolves would place three athletes across the finish among the top-5 overall and forth runner Danielle McCormick (11th place finisher) would pretty much seal the team victory.
The 'Cats would begin their scoring with the 14th place run of Alex Tucker. In the following 6 seconds the 'Cats 2,3,4,5 and 6 runners would cross the finish. Desirae Jones (running her first regional race ever) would finish 15th, while Nora Pizzella, Kayden Carpenter, Karlie Garcia and Haley Boynton would finish 17th, 20th, 22nd and 23rd respectively. Anchorage's fifth scorer would finish 46th, but the damage had been done.
Simon Fraser and Chico would have an interesting battle within the race, for the second of three automatic berths into the NCAA meet. SFU placed their top 3 runners in front of the 'Cats 1st (4th, 7th, 13th), but the 'Cats would then pour 6 across the line before SFU's fourth and fifth (28th/33rd). Unfortunately the low sticks for won the day for the Canadians as SFU would edge the 'Cats by 3 points. Still the Wildcat women had finished nearly 100 points in front of fourth place Seattle Pacific (currently ranked 13th nationally). Another nice honor for the Chico women was that 6 of the 7 had earned All West Region recognition, bringing the 'Cats total on the day to 13/14 (counting the men of course).
Up Next: the 'Cats will head to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in two weeks (Sat December 1) for the DII NCAA Cross Country Nationals.
