Sacramento, CA -- This weekend the Wildcats of Chico State enjoyed solid outings at the Capital Cross Challenge in Sacramento, CA. This would be our fourth straight year of attending this meet, and this year was by far the biggest turnout for the event. A combination of the cancellation of the Stanford Invite, and the hosting of this year's NCAA DII championships on this course brought the Capital XC meet to a new level of competitiveness. In fact, event organizers added Open college races for both genders and limited the number of athletes any 1 team could enter in the Invitational events. The result for the 'Cats were four collegiate races with full scoring teams. I'm proud to report that between these four races each Wildcat team finished among the top-5 in their fields. Follow along below for a few highlights of each race.

Men's Invitational 8k: The Chico men had a 3 year win streak going into Saturday's run at Haggin Oaks so there was plenty of motivation going into the race. Joining the 'Cats on the line was a host of DII ranked schools (This year's NCAA Championships are to be held on the same layout in November and this was in essence the National preview). There were also good number of DI's present, including SLO, CAL, New Mexico State and a number of others. The Chico men would have to enjoy a very good run if they wished to bring another title home.

In the early going the pace appeared to be relatively modest, which allowed a large lead group to run together for over 2 miles. The 'Cats were well placed within this large group with Trad Berti always visible in the lead wall of runners. Nearing the half-way point of the run a pair of Kenyan athletes from Alaska Anchorage began to press the pace, which immediately split the field into sub-groups.

A four man group (including Berti) formed at the front, and it appeared the individual champ would come from this elite quartet. Looking strong and composed Chico's Matthew Herrera and Wyatt Baxter battled among the next group of athletes in the 300+ runner field.

A relatively large gap had formed between Herrera/Baxter and our next group, and within that gap ran all 5 scoring runners from Cal Poly SLO. It was obvious that our competition this day was definitely going to come from the Mustangs.

The Chico men fought hard over the final kilometers but the SLO men were just too strong and had too large of a gap between themselves and the Chico 4-10 runners. Not helping our chances was the lost shoe of senior Zachary Chamberlain, who ran the entire final 4k with 1 shoe.

In the end Berti would finish well taking 3rd place overall behind SLO's #1 Jake Ritter (Defending Big West Champ) and Alaska's standout Wesley Kirui. Finishing with very fine runs of 6th and 7th respectively were Matt Herrera and Wyatt Baxter. SLO's #2 would take 8th overall, while their 3rd and 4th finished 10th/11th. SLO's 5th would seal their victory with a 23rd place run. Chico's 4,5,6,7,8 and 9 runners would all finish within a 9 second span between 23rd place and 39th, solidifying a second place showing on the day. Chamberlain would be the 'Cats final finisher at 53rd overall (280+ finishers) just 5 seconds behind SLO's #6.

Men's Open 8k: Due to the large number of teams entered in Capital XC this year meet officials decided to add Collegiate open races. For some teams (Chico included) this would be an opportunity to run the #11-20ish runners in a separate scoring race, since the Invite races were capped at 10 athletes per team. Meet officials also split several lower ranked A squads into the Open races in order to keep the Invite fields manageable.

For the very deep Chico men's squad this was an opportunity to show just how deep our team is, while also allowing a new set of men gain the experience of being a scoring member of a team. Also, it should be noted that all of our red shirting folks were entered in the Open races.

As the race began to unfold in the first 2k, Chico's top-4 men, Pedro Cruz, Cameron Tomlinson, Dylan White and Christian Woolfolk, all established themselves among the front pack. Some 60+ men ran by yours truly between these 4 and our fifth runner at 2k (Garrett DeLong). Garret was alerted of his positioning, and seemed to engage well through the remainder of the race.

Early on, two athletes split from the field, leaving a splintering lead group to give chase. Chico's lone entrant among this group was Pedro Cruz, a transfer from East Bay, who missed all of the '18-'19 year with a variety of injuries. Cruz had rough outings in our team TT and at the Stump meet, But workouts have looked good, and he enjoyed a very strong summer. Today the All CCAA performer (while at EB) was making his comeback official. While Tomlinson, Woolfolk and White all worked hard to stay close to Cruz, DeLong was hammering through the field, narrowing the gap between himself and our fourth scorer with each kilometer covered.

Cruz would lose a battle with a few talented unattached athletes over the final few kilometers but would still manage a 5th place finish (25:01). Christian Woolfolk would finish next for the 'Cats at 8th overall (25:17). Just 1 tick of the clock behind Woolfolk was red shirting frosh Brayden McLaughlin who finished 9th. Garrett DeLong, who'd gone through the mile outside the top 75, would climb all the way up to 12th position by the finish. RS frosh Dylan White would finish as the 'Cats 4th scorer with a 25:28 PR. Next in was Cameron Tomlinson who had run much of the race among the top-10-15, but picked up a bad side-stitch and held on for a 26th place finish. RS Frosh Brian Hastings notched a nice 25:40's PR with his 30th place finish.

as the dust settled and the scores were tallied the 'Cats would take the team title with a miniscule 26 point effort beating A teams from OIT, Concordia, UC Santa Cruz, SF State, and a number of other schools.

Women's Invitational 6k: The Chico women would have their hands full in the invite race on Saturday as nearly each of the region's top-10 ranked DII teams were present, as well as Colorado School of the Mines (ranked among DII's top-5 nationally). Add top regionally ranked Queens from Charlotte, NC, and a slew of D-1's like CAL, San Jose State, Grand Canyon, St Mary's, and New Mexico State, and you had quite a women's field.

The 'Cats would run without Stump Invite scorer Taylor Lustyan (trying to rest an inflamed foot) But would now have true frosh Destiny Everett and Gracie Dupuis in uniform for the first time.

Given the size of the field (320+ runners) and the talent present, it was no surprise that the pace was very quick from the start. As the Chico women rolled through the mile mark they were crowded just inside the top-third of the field, but well behind the lead runners from most of our main competition. Alaska had two runners operating among the top-10 overall, as did DII regional foe Seattle Pacific who had 3 among the top-15 in the early going.

As the race evolved the 2019 Chico women operated as many Chico teams before them.. They methodically worked together to envelop groups of athletes who ran ahead of them, and then left them behind.

Somewhere around the 3k point senior Talia Swangler gapped her teammates as she charged forward through the field. Feeding off this move Nora Pizzella, Gracie Dupuis, Destiny Everett, Haley Boynton, and Desirae Jones all fought hard to keep Swangler in their sights.

At the finish Seattle Pacific's top runner Kaylee Mitchell would take the win. Mines' top gal Chloe Cook would take 3rd place, while their #2 would take 8th overall. Mines, Alaska, Seattle, SLO, and CAL would all place at least two across the line before Chico's #1. Thankfully though, the 'Cats eventual 19 second scoring spread (the best among all 40 teams) would save the day. Swangler would reach the tape first, with a 21:19 PR for 6k (26th overall). Destiny Everett would make her debut in the Chico uniform a solid one with a 34th place finish. Senior Desirae Jones (46th) would cross next for the 'Cats, while Nora Pizzella and Gracie Dupuis (51st/52nd) would end the 'Cats scoring day.

Despite having no "low" sticks like many of the other top teams present, the 'Cats minimal spread garnered them a 5th place finish (40 schools in field) and most importantly 2nd among DII's present. The D2 placing in a meet like this is important in today's DII world, since only the top-3 from each regional championship is guaranteed entry into the NCAA meet in November. Teams who finish outside of the top-3 at regionals need to have wins over other top-DII teams during the course of the season to help gain an at large berth. Our goal of course is to win the region, BUT if something was to happen and we finished outside the Top-3 it's nice to have so many wins against top-D2 teams in a meet like this.

Women's Open 6k: As the guys' open crew had before them, the Chico women would be up against a number of A squads from the NAIA and DII, as well as B squads from DI's like CAL, St Mary's and Santa Clara.

Leading the way for the Chico women were Angelica Salas and Jalen Burns. Both women were coming off setbacks and in need of solid races. Thankfully this would indeed be the case. Salas, who while red shirting a year ago enjoyed a breakthrough year of racing notching top placings at a number of big XC competitions, and track Pr's like 10:11 and 17:35 on the track (3k/5k). Salas had enjoyed a good summer of training but has struggled to get through workouts anywhere near the paces that she was running a year ago. Just this week she was finally diagnosed with exercise induced asthma, and our most recent workout showed immediate improvements.

Jalen Burns (36:40 10k last spring) had a great summer of training but picked up a hip issue in the first week of school that has caused some altering of training and racing in the weeks since. Thankfully the issue seems to be resolved and recent workouts have indicated the potential for a good race Saturday.

From the start Salas and Burns looked composed and aggressive as they mixed it up among the top 15-20 in the open race. A large gap stood between themselves and our 3-5 runners at mid race (note the Chico women sat in 4th place in team scoring at 1.1 miles). Thankfully Carrie McDonough and Esmeralda Aguayo were making some nice progress through the second half of the race to narrow this gap down substantially.

Salas would cross the finish in 8th place (22:12) while Burns was 10th just 1 second behind. Perhaps passing more women than anyone in the race was RS frosh Carrie McDounough who finished 14th overall (22:26) having flown by at least 60-70 runners in the process. Finishing up the 'Cats scoring on the day were Esmeralda Aguayo (22:56) and Kela Leamy (23:17) both RS frosh. This race was a nice glimpse into the future of our team, as all five scorers have plenty of eligibility remaining.

Next up: The 'Cats will head North to Bellingham, WA in two weeks for the final Invitational of the season.