Fremont, CA -- In the fall of '19 the Wildcat men's and women's cross country teams added to substantial CCAA winning streaks, with the women taking their 12th straight title, and the men, their 18th. On paper the Wildcat women would return 5 All CCAA runners for the 2020 version while the men had their entire championship roster returning. Of course Covid then shut everything down and the 2020 season never occurred, and the Wildcat's women's roster was a massive victim of this shut-down. Coming out of the Covid crisis the 'Cats line-up was barely recognizable, and we've spent the past 2 years re-building, while taking some hits along the way. One of the biggest hits was placing 2nd (behind Stanislaus) at the past 2 CCAA Championships. On Saturday the 'Cats took another step forward in our return from the forced break from competition, with BOTH squads returning to the winner's circle at the CCAA Championships.
While the women won their 17th conference crown in the past 21 editions, the men managed to conquer yet another field while adding to their CCAA record (all sports) winning streak of 21 straight victories. Both races had this coach on the edge of his seat as each race held a good amount of drama.
I should also add that we had an incredible group of supporters at Saturday's races. Alumni travelled from across the country, parents of current and past athletes. We've always enjoyed an awesome support group and it was definitely on display at the races on Saturday. Thank you!
Women's 6k Championship:
Before diving into race details, I'll quickly describe the courses, as they definitely had an impact on the eventual results. Cal State East Bay hosted the meet for the first time (since they joined the conference 20+ years ago) at Quarry Lakes Regional Park in Fremont, CA. Quarry Lakes is a picturesque venue, and athletes would do a series of 3k-ish lake loops (there were 3 variations of the same loop). The women's course would include two loops, while the men's race would circle Rainbow lake 3 times. 3k lake loops are beautiful, but spectating was certainly a challenge for those on hand. The main limitation with the course though was the start area, which was an uneven dirt patch that stretched around 40 meters before drastically narrowing into the 10-15 foot wide gravel race path that circles the lake. The start was a concern to coaches' during the pre-race call the evening before, and unfortunately it would factor into each race, as both runs would require restarts, due to athletes falling. In fact, we had at least one athlete go down in each race, with both starting their eventual races bloodied and bruised. The falls were an unfortunate and preventable wrinkle in our day, but overall the 'Cats handled the adversity quite well.
During the initial start of the women's race, 3-time All-CCAA runner Gracie Dupuis was pushed from behind during the physical start stretch, and she would take a hard fall, doing a complete summersault and scraping her arm, shoulder, and back. Thankfully she was able to re-start and race, but wouldn't factor in the 'Cats scoring for the first time in her CCAA racing career. Minus Gracie's setback, the 'Cats enjoyed their best start of the season collectively, but still trailed a determined Stan State squad by 27 points at the one-kilometer mark.
During the next several kilometers of racing the Wildcat women did some awesome work, literally trading places among the field with Stanislaus' scorers. At 1k Stan had 5 women packed into the top-10 overall, and by 4k the 'Cats had flipped the script with 5 running among the top-9 (Stan had only 2). Score with 8ish minutes of running left: Chico 32, Stan 56.
Leading the way for the 'Cats once again were Chico natives Iresh and Della Molina. The pair ran among a chase pack the entire race (Sonoma's Gianna Bomarito had a commanding lead throughout) and eventually lost a close battle with Stan's #1 Holly Little for second. Iresh would follow in 3rd place, with Della just a few seconds behind in 4th. Junior Sophie Pelletier would earn her first ever All CCAA award with her 11th place finish, and teammate Hannah Wirth would do the same while taking 12th just in front of Stan's #3 runner. Jaclyn Denham would take 15th (for the second straight year) concluding the 'Cats scoring, and insuring the 'Cats win. Senior Jacqueline Cascione would place 17th. True frosh Megan Malloy went into the weekend as our alternate, but was called into duty the day before the competition, and took advantage of the opportunity while placing 23rd! Gracie Dupuis would finish next, and Sienna Bianchi gave the 'Cat's 9 of the Top-25. Junior Jenny Ruiz would conclude the ladies' day with a 37th place CCAA Champs debut.
Overall, another solid day for the Chico State women. After two straight second-place finishes, and an early deficit to the Warriors the Chico ladies ran a poised race while giving Chico State it's first conference crown of the year.
Men's 8k Championship:
As previously mentioned, the Wildcat men carried a 20 year win streak to the line on Saturday. Cal Poly Pomona has finished second in most of those years, and it's become obvious that they aren't interested in settling for runner-up spots in conference action. On paper, this year was a great opportunity for Pomona. The 'Cats graduated their top-3 finishers from the '22 Championships, and 23:35 8k guy Omar Alvarez hadn't quite made the cut for this year's roster due to a months long injury set-back. Pomona, on the other hand returned their entire '22 championship roster, and during our early season meeting with them, a few of their top guys were literally telling our guys that they were coming for us During the race! That day resulted with a 7 point victory for the 'Cats, but Pomona had run without top runner Ricardo Vargas (The 'Cats were without Mario Giannini). The bottom line is that Pomona has a good team with depth, and they would bring all they could in an attempt to win the day in Fremont.
Expecting that Pomona would key off our main group, the plan was to get to the front, create an honest pace early, while saving some cards for the last loop where we'd need to squeeze the pace down to the finish. Things don't always work out the way a coach draws them up, but they certainly did on Saturday.
As with the women's race there was a pile-up at the start of the men's run as well. Chico's Matthew Gordon took a hard tumble (literally falling over a Stanislaus runner who'd gone down in front of him) before the starter blew a restart gun. There was literally a 10 minute delay between starts as medical folks attended to the athletes that had been scraped up in the mele.
Thankfully the second attempt was a success and the race quickly turned into the dual meet that we'd predicted from the start. Top 'Cats Daniel Hernandez, Mario Giannini, Brayden McLaughlin, and Dylan White ran among the front of a lead group with what appeared to be the entire Pomona roster hot on their heels. Intermixed in the early going were athletes from a number of other teams, but as the kilometers clicked off, the front became a sea of Maroon and Green.
As the 'Cats headed out for the final loop, the previously mentioned quartet was doing some good work at the front. The Chico men were notching the pace down systematically, and at the 6k mark we ran 1-4 overall, BUT Pomona occupied spots 5,6,7,8, and all 8 ran within 1 second of each other! To add to the nerves, Pomona's #5 ran in 10th overall, with Chico's final scorer 11th, some 7 seconds behind. If our plan of squeezing the Pomona runners off the front didn't work, and if they win the match-race between top runners, it appeared their 5th would beat ours, and they win the race.
Thankfully the guys at the front DID win the battle of the final lake loop. Leading the charge over the final kilometer was Dylan White (an East Bay Native) who squeezed the pace down enough to dispatch even his own teammates. RS Frosh Mario Giannini ran an impressive final 600m to move past Pomona's #1 Echeveste, and teammates Daniel Hernandez and Brayden Mclaughlin. Hernandez would finish next, and Brayden would hold off Pomona's #1 to give the 'Cats a 1-4 sweep. Echeveste would take fifth, with teammate Leandro Canadray taking sixth. The biggest race of the day for the 'Cats though, was that of Hunter Dougherty. The walk-on from Chico HS was running in his first CCAA championship, and boy did he make the most of it. Dougherty was having a huge run entering the final 600m in 14th place, but he wasn't content with that. The aptly named Hunter took down no less than 4 Pomona runners in the final stretch, eventually reaching the finish 8th overall! CCAA 10k champ Joshua O'Neill would finish 13th as the 'Cats #6, while Matthew Gordon, Anders Beil, and Jesus Villarreal would take 17th, 18th, and 20th respectively. As predicted the Wildcats and Broncos would take 12 of the Top-13 places and 16 of the top 21.
Extra Tidbits:
With the win Dylan White becomes the 'Cats 14th individual champ in 15 years. Mario Giannini would take home the Conference's Newcomer of the Year award, and Brayden McLaughlin would earn his 3rd straight Top-5 CCAA finish. The men's and women's programs have now combined for 38 CCAA titles of the past 42 races dating back to 2002.
Up Next: The Wildcat crew travel to Monmouth, OR to race the West Region Championships (November 4). Top-3 teams in each race earn trips to the NCAA Championships, to be held in Joplin, Missouri.
