San Marcos, CA - Road tripping with a bunch of college kids is uniquely challenging and exhausting in a number of ways. These long treks are also extremely rewarding, and offer life-long memories and experiences that bring teams and coaches closer. Having just completed a trek to San Diego and back I can confirm all of the above to be true and I wouldn't change a thing if I could. It also helps when both teams return home victorious, as we were fortunate to do again this week. With a second set of twin-wins on the weekend, both squads are undefeated on the season.

Since the women raced first, we'll start with their performance below.

Women's 6k: The Wildcat women entered the race as the favorite on paper, but little was known about a Salt Lake CC team, other than the fact that they have a LOT of scholarships to work with, and a great area to recruit from. The 'Cats would also have the chance to race former CCAA foe and now DI program UCSD. The Cougar Challenge course circuits a 2k undulating loop around the athletics facilities on their campus. Most of the course is run on a hard packed dirt path, with each loop holding a few short punchy climbs and some grassy stretches.

As the women's field streamed by yours truly about ¼ mile into the run our Wildcats were buried in the 180+ runner field. Perhaps my words the evening before when addressing the team about not panicking if they didn't get a good start allowed them to let their guard down with the start. Or maybe they (my words) proved valuable in the later stages of the race. I suppose we'll never know. At the conclusion of the first 2k loop (athletes crossed a computer chip mat each loop) the 'Cats ran in 2nd place, trailing Utah's top JC team by 9 points. Even with the less than perfect start the 'Cats were still running ahead of UCSD and the remaining field.

The second 2k loop brought a massive move forward by the Wildcat women. Although the Molina twins (Della and Irish) did have solid starts, they each passed 5 athletes in the second loop. Teammate Hannah Wirth moved past 6, Jacqueline Cascione 10, Sophie Pelletier 19, Jaclyn Denham 14, Sienna Bianchi 11, and Gracie Dupuis 17. The only Wildcat athlete that didn't pass at least 5 runners in the second loop was Senior Hannah Ryan who's dealing with some complex physical issues since coming down with a virus several weeks ago. Ryan, who's finished as low as 5th in the CCAA Championships was never a scoring factor for the Chico women on the day, but thankfully our depth paid big dividends. Team score at the end of loop 2: Chico 53, SLCC 66, UCSD 91.

Loop three brought more forward movement for the Chico ladies as Della Molina's final push nabbed her a 3rd place finish overall. Twin sister Iresh would finish just 3 seconds back in 6th place. Hannah Wirth would run a big 6k PB with her 9th place (21:21) effort. Jacqueline Cascione would cross the line 17th overall, while Sophie Pelletier would close the team's scoring with a 22nd place effort. Gracie Dupuis and Jaclyn Denham would enjoy their best runs of the season as well, with each crossing the finish inside the top-30 and ahead of all other teams' final scorers. Final team scores for the top 3: Chico- 46, SLCC- 80, UCSD- 84.

Men's 8k: It's no secret that the Wildcat men have won 20 straight conference titles. In that span of success the second-place team has almost always been Cal Poly Pomona. Going into this season yours truly knew that the Broncos would have a very real shot at upending us if we didn't take some much-needed steps forward with a number of relatively unproven athletes. Looking at the 2022 CCAA results you'll see that Wildcats Rory Abberton, Jack Emanuel and Cameron Duquette took places 1,2 and 4 overall. With all three having graduated in the spring there's no doubt that there's some vulnerability (on paper). While the 'Cats graduated a very decorated group up front, Pomona has been building a very talented and young team. Leondro Candray: 14:29/29:58, Daniel Echeveste: 14:21, Ricardo Vargas: 14:26/24:16-8k, Vincent Sarino: 10th CCAA XC '22, Chris Razo: 9:10 steeple, Gideon Pichardo: 14:38, Francisco Zavaleta: 14:36, Evan Franco: 14:39, Nicholas Albro: 14:46/9:10-st, is the core group of returners, and their top performances to date. Perhaps it's a good thing XC isn't run on the track because Pomona's list of returning track PB's definitely outweighs ours.

Adding to our challenge on Saturday, we decided to sit Mario Giannini (Ash Creek Invite Champ) from the race, as he's been dealing with an inflamed tendon in his ankle. Mario did a solid workout on Friday, so if he Had to race he certainly could have. It should be mentioned that Pomona ran Saturday without Ricardo Vargas, who was their #2 at Riverside last week with his 24:16 finish.

The men's race went as many do.... A very large group of guys flew through the mile well under 5 minutes, and thankfully the 'Cats had placed themselves well inside the top quarter of the field. The plan for our top guys was to operate among the leaders, but not press the pace until the final stages of the race. Team scores at the completion of 1 loop: Chico 44, Pomona 77, Western NM 86, San Marcos 118. With a gap of only 6 seconds separating places 2-44 at the 2k mark, scores were very tenuous at this point.

At the mid-way point of the run Chico still held the lead in the team race, with a 29 point tally, but Pomona's top group had moved into a dwindling lead pack, cutting their team score to 38 points. Salt Lake CC had moved into 3rd with 94. Going into loop three Chico's Daniel Hernandez made a bid to leave the chase group in an effort to catch early race leader and Olympic Trials marathon qualifier Nathan Dunn. In loop three Damian Garcia, Brayden McLaughlin, Joshua O'Neill, and Dylan White all ran within a second of one another and among a shrinking lead pack. With all five Pomona scorers also among this group, the race for the team title was heating up.

With a lap to go the 'Cats held a 22-37 lead over Pomona, with Salt Lake running in 3rd position with 93 points. Daniel Hernandez (who'd caught and passed Dunn at the front) was now the race leader. The front pack, which was 13 strong, still held all five Pomona scorers, and Chico's 2-5 runners. This was basically a dual meet at the front of the race and Chico had the advantage given Hernandez' gap on Pomona's top potential scorer.

The 'Cats did some great work over the final 2k, and Dylan White led this charge. The Clayton Valley alum pressed hard over the final kilometer to stretch the lead pack. His consistent efforts eventually dropped Pomona's Echeveste and gave the 'Cats a 3 point tally after two finishers. Echeveste would begin Pomona's scoring, taking 4th and Pomona #2 Candray would follow in 6th. Brayden McLaughlin would place 7th and Pomona would answer with their #3 (Zavaleta) finishing 8th. Damian Garcia would follow in 9th, edging Pomona's Albro who placed 10th. Joshua O'Neill would take 12th as the 'Cats final scorer, and Pomona's Sarino would stop the Bronco's tally taking 13th.

What a race this one was. In breaking down the scoring, the 'Cats won all battles between 1-5 runners, but the head to head duals between numbers three, four, and five, each were separated by just 1 place (and usually just a second or two). This was a fun one to watch and adds a lot to the upcoming CCAA and West Region championships. It should be added that the 'Cats won the battles between 6 and 7 runners, which could prove to be valuable as we look ahead to the post season. Depth matters!

Next up: The Chico crew will head to San Francisco a week from Friday for the SF Invite. This will be the team's final tune-up for the post season, as CCAA's follow two weeks after in Freemont, CA. Stay tuned and thanks so much for your support!