Chico State men pick up where they left off, another CCAA title as McLoughlin wins
Women unable to pull of a second upset of a potent Stanislaus State squad

Saturday, October 23, 2021
Comments & photos by Gary Towne/Chico State Cross Country Coach

San Marcos, CA -- I'm proud to announce that the Wildcat cross country teams did a wonderful job of continuing our strong legacy of success this weekend, while recording 1st and 2nd place finishes at the CCAA Championships, hosted by Cal St. San Marcos. With a miniscule score of just 25 points the Chico men handily won the program's 19th straight title, dating back to 2002. The women fought hard in trying to add to a 12 year winning streak, but ran into a wall that came in the form of a talented and more experienced Stanislaus State team. The women still managed a solid 2nd place run that was highlighted by 3 'Cats that would finish among the top-6 overall. All of this action was witnessed by a large and supportive contingent of Wildcat faithful that included many alumni, and parents of current and past Wildcats. It was a special day and we're so grateful to be back in Championships season again.

Women's 6k Championship: The Chico women entered Saturday's competition as slight favorites on paper due solely to their narrow 2 point win over Stanislaus on the same San Marcos course 4 weeks previous at the Cougar Challenge. On that day the 'Cats were led by Katie Hawley a San Diego native who clocked a 21:36 PR. Since then Stanislaus has not raced, and just focused on training for the post-season. During the same window Hawley and several others in our top group have endured various set-backs that left us short-handed in our most recent race in Washington, and a bit vulnerable as we enter the championship segment. Despite the circumstances, the Chico women were determined to do their best to bring another banner back to campus.

The women's race was fairly aggressive from the start with a group of 15-20 women firing off to a 5:35ish first mile split. A gap had already formed between this front group and the remainder of the field. Initially the 'Cats had 4 women in the first grouping with Marissa D'Atri, Gracie Dupuis, Hannah Ryan, and true frosh Jaclyn Denham all representing Chico near the front. Teammates Hawley, Esmeralda Aguayo, and Paulina Guerrero ran at thefront of the main chase group. As scores came up at the 2k point host San Marcos had a small lead over Stanislaus, with Chico in third, some 20 points behind.

The middle of three loops brought plenty of movement, as several San Marcos athletes fell from the lead group, but unfortunately Denham had become detached as well. Stanislaus now held the race lead, with the 'Cats having moved into a slight lead over the hosts for 2nd place. Unfortunately for the Chico women, our chase group was unable to bridge the widening gap between themselves and the lead group that contained Stanislaus' top 4 women. We needed a small miracle over the final loop in order keep the streak intact.

Over the final 2k circuit the 'Cats top-3 all did some great work in shedding most of their pursuers, and also putting valuable seconds between themselves and Stanislaus' #3. Leading the way was Sophomore Gracie Dupuis who got off to a slow start (for her standards) this season but has enjoyed some great workouts as of late. Dupuis powered away from all pursuers over the final lap, with the exception being Stanislaus' top 2 women Kaela Dishion and Sabrina Garcia, who I pegged as potential 1-2 finishers in my pre-race dope sheet. Knowing that Stan could very well place 1-2 in the race, we needed to put some numbers in front of their #3 (a 6th year senior who was 8th in CCAA's in 2019. Dupuis would chase the Stanislaus duo to the finish, not catching either, but eventually matching her 3rd place 2019 run while recording a sub 21 min clocking on the day. Also closing quite well were Hannah Ryan and Marissa D'Atri who would finish 5th and 6th, just in front of Stan's Nancy Juarez (their 3rd on the day). Unfortunately 39 seconds would elapse from the clock before the 'Cats 4/5 runners would hit the tape in 20th and 21st. During that window Stanislaus would place their 4th in at 11th, and a fifth at 17th, thus securing the win. Still, true frosh Paulina Guerrero and Jaclyn Denham (our 4/5) had both improved their times from the Cougar Challenge and had managed solid overall placings. Also having a solid outing was junior Esmeralda Aguayo, who managed a top-25 finish in her first CCAA championship run.

In digging a bit deeper into the results in the hours after the run it's obvious that the 'Cats didn't have their best day, BUT they still had enjoyed a strong outing. Saturday's top-5 average was 21:24, where as our winning average on the same course 4 weeks previous was 21:40. Of the 9 competing 'Cats 4 were freshmen, and only two had previous CCAA experience. All 'Cats have eligibility remaining, and you can bet that their memories of a stinging loss will help to motivate them as they move ahead to the coming races and years.

Men's Championship 8k: Despite running without RS frosh Daniel Hernandez (Our #3 finisher @ WWU Invite 2 weeks earlier) the Chico men raced to a very convincing win on Saturday. The plan going into the race was to absorb the early aggressiveness of the competition, but absolutely own the final 2 laps of the 4 lap competition. Having witnessed the run, and reflecting on the effort, I have to say the men executed this to near-perfection.

Unlike the women's race, the lead pack went out relatively conservatively in the early going, as most of the men reported slower first mile splits here than at the Cougar Challenge by 5-10 seconds. As was expected some teams were pretty aggressive in the early going, with Stanislaus packing their entire front 6 among the top 16 in the early going. In fact, Stanislaus led the race at the 2k mark by 8 points.

As the race began to evolve in the second and third loops, the main group of Wildcat men established themselves well among a lead group that was shedding numbers with each kilometer covered. As he had at the WWU meet two weeks previous Chico's Charlie Giannini spotted the main group quite a few places in the early going, crossing the 2k mat in 54th place but only 8 seconds behind race leader (and teammate) Matt Herrera. Between 2k-4k Giannini would pass a whopping 31 athletes, and by the finish of lap 3 he sat in 12th place.

Coming into Saturday's run the overwhelming favorite to win the individual title was San Marcos' senior Shea Vavra who had won the Cougar Challenge convincingly, and had recently placed 3rd overall in a big race in Chicago. As the race rolled into the later stages of the third lap Chico's returning All American Jack Emanuel (who's had some very strong recent workouts) began to test the front, pushing the gas and forcing Vavra to react. These surges would eventually splinter the front group as Vavra and Emanuel would separate from the group. Never letting Vavra and Emanuel get too far in front, was Chico's RS Frosh Brayden McLaughlin who had led the 'Cats in each race this season, and was the #2 seed on my pre-race form-chart. Also making some moves over the final circuit was Pomona's Sophomore Vincent Sarino who placed 62nd in the 2019 NCAA Championship race as a frosh.

Over the final stages of the 4th lap Vavra had dropped a tiring Emanuel, but McLaughlin and a surging Sarino were still within striking distance of the potential win. Yours truly was positioned at a spot with 300m remaining and Vavra had several strides on McLaughlin, and Brayden had an equal distance over the Pomona standout, while Emanuel was still close, but appeared to be headed in the wrong direction for a potential win. Next to come through was Stanislaus' #1 man Jose Garcia who had Chico's Sophomore Dylan White hot on his heels. After this pair went by, no fewer than 5 Wildcats fled by within a second of one another. Rory Abberton, Omar Alvarez-Hernandez, Cameron Duquette, Charlie Giannini, and Matt Herrera.

As they ran diagonally across the infield of the track before making a left turn on the oval for the finish stretch, McLaughlin caught and passed a tiring Vavra, and by the finishing stretch realized that he was about to win his first conference title. With a few fist pumps and a huge smile McLaughlin flew through the line with a 4 second win over Sarino who had also gotten by Vavra, who held on for 3rd. Emanuel would finish 4th, and a strong finishing 300m gave Dylan White a fifth place CCAA debut. Stanislaus' Jose Garcia would finish in 6th, and now a flurry of Wildcat jerseys would hit the finish, all within several seconds. Rory Abberton would finish 7th while teammate Cameron Duquette would take 8th. East Bay's Cole McKain would take the 9th spot, before the 'Cats' Charlie Giannini, Omar Alvarez-Hernandez and Matthew Herrera would take 10th, 11th, and 12th. RS frosh Joshua O'Neill would just miss All CCAA honors with a 16th place finish, and Michael Ramirez (who found out he was racing on Thursday) would grind out a 25th place run, despite dealing with a late race side-stitch.

The fast and furious finish of the 'Cats group gave the Chico men a very impressive 16 second 1-8 gap. The team's depth was also highlighted by the fact that #8 runner Matthew Herrera beat every other teams' 2nd finisher. Another fun fact was that Brayden McLaughlin became the 'Cats 16th winner of the CCAA race in the past 20 championship runs joining an elite group of Wildcat standouts. There was much to celebrate after this run as the Chico men had done a wonderful job of returning to the championship setting, despite having only 3 of 10 runners on the roster who had run in the CCAA meet previously.

Chico State Men's Cross Country CCAA Championship History Individual winners (16) Brayden McLaughlin ('21) Eddie King ('18) Kyle Medina ('17) Will Reyes ('16 and '15) Alex McGuirk ('14) Aaron Thomas ('13) Isaac Chavez ('12) Adrian Sherrod ('11) Brent Handa ('10) Jimmy Elam ('09) Scott Bauhs ('08) Charlie Serrano ('06) Patrick Boivin ('05) Tyler Graff ('03) David Braund ('01)

Team Championships (19) 2002, '03, '04, '05, '06, '07, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '21.

Next Up: West Region Championships: @ Western Oregon University-Monmouth, OR. Women's start: 10am. Men's 10k start: 11:15am. The men will enter the regional meet with a #1 ranking, while the women will be seeded 3rd. Top-3 from each race will punch tickets into the NCAA meet to be held in St. Leo, Florida on November 20.