JOPLIN, MISSOURI -- Having just returned from the NCAA Championships in Joplin, Missouri I'm proud to report that your Wildcat cross country teams enjoyed another successful trip to the big dance. The men placed 9th in what was easily the deepest DII field ever assembled, while the women notched a 13th place finish (34 teams competed in each race). The men have now finished among the Top 10 in these championships in 23 of the past 24 races. The two squads also bring home 3 All Americans with the Top-40 finishes of Brayden McLaughlin (28th), Iresh Molina (31st) and Della Molina (37th). It was quite a day and season for the 'Cats and we're extremely grateful for the successes that we've enjoyed.
Women's Championship 6k:
From the top, it can't be forgotten that this year's women's squad BARELY squeaked into the NCAA field. The Wildcat women tied for the final auto qualifying spot to NCAA's at the regional two weeks ago, and won the tie-breaker by what was in essence a .2 second difference between ourselves and Concordia of Irvine. Sadly Concordia wasn't chosen as an At-Large team by the selection committee, so this Wildcat team knew they were very fortunate to have another shot at the NCAA Championships (We've qualified each year since 2000).
Unfortunately for us, our crew was Not firing on all cylinders in the weeks leading up to the NCAA races. Injuries, and other unforeseen issues created a scenario where each workout in the weeks leading up to the finals in Joplin seemed to offer a completely different feel for the group's overall fitness/well being. The main message from the Coaches was just to pull everything together the best that we could, and see where that would leave us on the day. Take what the body offers, and don't beat ourselves out there. Thankfully the women did a solid job of this, and the results show in the results.
A year ago the Molina twins (both true frosh at the time) struggled for consistency in different areas, flashing signs of potential, but also shooting themselves in the foot on occasion, which sometimes resulted in mixed results at the races. This year the twins have been incredibly consistent in all ways, and it's Certainly shown in their performances. On Saturday Both enjoyed the best races of their lives while employing perfect racing strategies.
Since the Wildcats had raced on this same Joplin course at 4 previous NCAA Championships, yours truly had a good idea of how the competitions might play out, and what strategies have worked well for 'Cats of yesteryear. Two women who have had the best races in past NCAA races in Joplin were Sara Mikesell (14th in 2012) and Sadie Gastelum (12th in 2015). The twins pulled some strategies out of these two All Americans' play-books on Saturday, with the first being a measured start to hopefully lessen the blow of what would certainly be a very fast first mile.
With goals of finishing among the Top-40 overall the twins rolled through the mile in 59th/63rd places (5:25 split). The last All American spot crossed the mile mat just under 5:20! Jacqueline Cascione would cross the mile mat next w/ a 5:32 split (108th), while Sophie Pelletier (5:38/133), and Hannah Wirth (5:40/161) followed with some honest early splits of their own. Despite having all 5 scorers across the mile mark in 5:40 or faster, the 'Cats ran in 17th place of the 34 teams.
The 3k split brought some forward momentum for the twins at the front, as Iresh led her sister through the half-way point in 54th and 56th places (10:21 splits). Cascione, who was also having the best race of her career followed in 112th place @ 10:43. The 'Cats collective efforts had moved them up one place in the overall leaderboard (16th).
Iresh and Della each moved up around 10 places over the next 2k as Iresh hit 5k in 17:20 and sat just 1 place behind the final All American position. Della followed just 2 seconds back (17:22) in 44th. Also continuing her push into the field was Cascione, who now ran just inside the Top-100 (99th) in 18:02 (just a few seconds off her track PB!). Sophie Pelletier, who'd spent the entire morning after arriving in Joplin sick with some sort of bug or food poisoning was giving up some places, but holding on the best she could in 154th. Senior Gracie Dupuis, who was clipping off places at each marker, was now our 5th on the course in 178th (18:35 split). With 1 Kilometer to go, the women ran in 15th place and just 1 point behind regional runner-up Biola, and just 1 place ahead of West Region champion Western Washington University.
The final kilometer brought some much-needed progress from our scorers, and with that momentum came All American awards and an eventual 13th place finish!
Iresh Molina smashed the final kilometer, passing no fewer than 10 women while finishing 31st overall in a new 6k PB of 20:36. Twin sis Della also crushed the final stretch while crossing 37th (20:40 PB!). Iresh's final kilometer was covered in a wicked 3:16! Jacqueline Cascione passed 16 women in the final 1k and hit the tape 83rd overall with a 21:26 PB. Sophie Pelletier would cross next in 151st place (22:09), while Gracie Dupuis (dealing with a hamstring issue since CCAA's) closed out the 'Cats scoring day with her 171st place finish (22:13). The excellent final kilometer sped the ladies clear of both West Region teams (Biola and WWU) who had beaten us for the regional title two weeks previous.
Given the number of Top-10 performances our women's team has notched at these championships in the past, this year's result could look like a "down" day on the surface. After digging a bit deeper though, there's a lot more to the story. Since the Joplin course is a permanent layout, it's been the same 6k route since we first raced there in 2007. We've raced NCAA's on the Joplin course 3 times prior to this year. In those years, our women finished 4th, 5th, and 4th ('07, '12, '15). This year's women's team time was faster than any of those squads', as the '23 crew managed a 21:25 avg. In previous years we've had 2 women finish in the top 15 in the field (Sara Mikesell-'12, 20:59, Sadie Gastelum-'15, 20:49). Iresh and Della Molina ran 20:36 and 20:40 on the same route and finished 31st and 37th respectively. Jacqueline Cascione ran the race of her life Saturday finishing 83rd in 21:26. If you plug this time into the previous 3 champs in Joplin you place 24th, 43rd, and 40th. The bottom line is that the NCAA is getting Much faster and there's a Lot more depth and top teams these days. We're still not 100 percent satisfied with Saturday's result, but there's also a lot of positives to take away from a 13th place finish in 2023.
Men's Championship 10k:
In the months and weeks leading up to NCAA's message boards heat up with chatter about the various teams that might contend for the titles, and who the potential top-10 might be. One of the common themes of the pre-race talk was that this was undoubtedly the deepest field ever assembled in DII history. You had defending champs Colorado School of Mines coming in off an undefeated season.. a Wingate team ranked #2 who boasted an incredible 20+ International roster and went 1-7 in their regional. Wingate's top runner Hamza Chahid (a "freshman") ran in the 13:30's on the track last spring. East Central U in Oklahoma had won their region off the strength of seven very fast Kenyan athletes. West Texas is another team that's recently become very relevant nationally with the help of an All-International scoring unit (that includes the eventual Champ William Amponsa from Kenya). Add usual title contenders Adams State, Western State, Grand Valley, and a host of up-and-coming squads, and you can see why the fields were regarded as the best ever.
The 'Cats went into the champs fairly healthy, minus an unfortunate situation with 2 X All Region runner Joshua O'Neill. Joshua went into the regional race nursing a slight groin/abdominal strain, and the slippery terrain in Monmouth, OR did it no favors. In the 2 weeks leading up to NCAA's there was a noticeable hitch to Josh's stride and to be honest, if it weren't his final race in a Wildcat uniform, he might have been substituted out for our alternate. The other 6 went into the weekend mostly-healthy, and prepared for what would be a Very gnarly field.
The plan on paper was to hopefully have our Top-4 guys, (who'd placed 1-4 at CCAA's) trying to find one another and place themselves somewhere in the 60's to 70 range by the mile mark. Joshua, Matthew Gordon, and Damian Garcia had plans that were a bit more fluid, but hopefully keeping themselves close enough to our front four to allow for an eventual solid team finish.
In the early-going of the run things went surprisingly according to plan. At the 3k split Dylan White, Daniel Hernandez, Mario Giannini, and Brayden McLaughlin rolled through in 8:48-8:49 in places 59-67. Our other trio of Matthew, Damian and Joshua all ran about 10 seconds back within just a second of one another. With 7k to go the 'Cats were in 8th place.
6k into the run the 'Cats packs were starting to break apart a bit and the team score bumped up to 9th. Brayden, Daniel and Mario all ran within a few seconds of one another, but CCAA Champ Dylan White was showing signs of distress and was giving up places with each passing kilometer. Matthew, Joshua and Damian ran in 112th, 131st, and 158th with 4k to go. Brayden was leading the 'Cats in 45th.
By 8k it was clear that Brayden was well on his way to earning a second All American honor as he looked to be passing competitors in each stretch of the run, while looking quite controlled. Brayden ran in 36th with 2k remaining (23:55 split) and teammate Daniel Hernandez followed in 47th (24:08). Giannini, running in his first NCAA champs event looked taxed, but capable of finishing off a solid day, sailing through 8k in 24:12 (50th place). Unfortunately for the 'Cats Dylan White's body completely shut down on him in the later stages, as breathing become extremely difficult (there was a LOT of dust in the air this year) and he actually had to walk a few stretches to re-gather himself. Matthew Gordon was now the 'Cats 4th on the course having moved up to 105th, and Joshua (despite the bad hip) was now our 5th as he struggled to maintain composure at 131st. The 'Cats were in 9th at this stage.
The 9k split marker brought a shuffling of places between ourselves and regional foes APU, who tagged 10 points onto us between 8-9k. With 1k remaining we ran in 10th overall.
Thankfully the guys would close well enough to push us back ahead of APU before the finish. Brayden McLaughlin led the way hitting the tape in 28th place (30:06). RS Frosh Mario Giannini would finish next in 48th (missing All American by just :09 seconds). Daniel Hernandez lopped off nearly 50 places from his 2022 NCAA run while placing 51st, just :03 behind Giannini. Matthew Gordon would close just well enough to dip into the Top-100 with his 31:10 outing. Joshua O'Neill would close the 'Cats scoring with a gutsy 134th place run (31:32). Despite the breathing difficulties Dylan White was able to re-pass some of those who went by him during the worst of the race, and crossed the line 164th overall. Damian Garcia would be the guys' final finisher at 184th.
In reflecting on the day, and given Josh's injury and Dylan's tough day, I'm extremely grateful to come home with another Top-10 finish under our belt. One of the points that we try to make to the team each year is just trying to do our very best with the hands that we're dealt. Sometimes setbacks happen, and we have to accept them and continue to move forward. Our goal coming in was to control what we could control and see where that left us in the results. I'm definitely quite proud of both squads for once again representing our school, city, and supporters as well as they did this season.
Mark your calendars for 11/23/24. NCAA's will be in Sacramento and you can bet we'll send a pair of motivated and capable teams to the start line in that one. More to come, and thanks for the support!
