Monmouth, OR -- I'm pleased to announce that Both Wildcat cross country squads will once again be finishing their seasons together at the NCAA Championships. Both men's and women's teams have toed the line at each NCAA championship since 2000, but that streak was REALLY put to the test this weekend. The women endured a few setbacks and some tough races, and ended up tying Concordia University for the third and final qualifying spot to NCAA's. Tie breakers are used in cases like this to figure out the advancing team. The NCAA tie breaker basically compares the finish places of each team's #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5 in virtual match races. The best of 5 is the victor. In looking at our match-ups against Concordia. We win the battles of 1's, they win the 2's and 3's.. Now if either our 4, or 5 lose to their 4 or 5's, we Don't go to NCAA's. Our fifth takes 40th, over their 49th.. and in the battle of #4's, our #4 (Jacqueline Cascione) beats their #4 by .2 seconds! That my friends is the difference between our women heading to Joplin, or a 20+ year streak ending. It was a heck of a day in Monmouth, OR.. Feel free to read below for some additional description, including our men's 17 point come-from behind victory in the final 2k of the 10k!
Women's 6k Championship:
The Chico women entered the weekend undefeated on the season, but ranked 3rd in the region behind GNAC and Pac West Champs Western Washington and Biola. Then there was Concordia of Irvine, the Pac West Runner-ups who had raced us to a 2 point run at our last regular season meet in San Francisco. Going into the weekend we had little room for error on paper, but yet also a potential chance at winning on a given day.
The course and conditions in Monmouth would certainly play a part in the races, as it had rained several inches the night before the competition and more was scheduled to hit the Ash Creek Preserve during the competitions. The Chico women enjoyed a solid start collectively positioning themselves nicely among a large lead group through the first of four 1500m(ish) loops. Team scores at the 2k mat had our women in 2nd place as a team, and only 6 points behind eventual champs WWU. The second loop brought a deluge of rain, and to be honest, our subsequent backsliding of places among the field most likely didn't have anything to do with the weather (both squads had half inch spikes in their shoes). Outside of the Molina twins, our 3/4/5 runners gave up valuable spots over the second loop, which wasn't the type of movement that this coach felt comfortable with seeing at that stage of the race.
As the women headed out for the third loop the Chico women suffered what appeared to be a season- ending blow, as within a few meters Iresh Molina had gone from running inside the top-10 in the lead pack (with her sister) to walking in a prone position. As she passed by yours truly she appeared to be having some sort of stomach ailment. Thankfully she kept moving forward, going from a walk, to a slow jog, to eventually running again. By the time Iresh had completely rebounded from the set-back, she'd fallen back into the 50's in the field.
Predictably the 4k split didn't offer a positive update for the Chico fans. With our 3/4/5 having given up numbers since 2k, and Iresh on the ropes, we now ran in 5th place, and well out of the 3rd and final qualifying spot to NCAA's. With 2k remaining University of Alaska Fairbanks ran in 3rd position with 119 points. Concordia trailed UAF by just 4 points, and Chico sat in 5th with 147. It would take a miracle at this point for the 'Cats to advance to NCAA's.
One of the points of the pre-race talk the evening before the race was to focus on what was in front of us, no matter what things looked like up ahead. The women did a great job of executing over the final stretches of this one and won some huge battles. The main shift in scoring of course was the 18 places that Iresh made up over the final 6+ minutes of racing. But of course there were more battles won that ended up giving us a chance for the tie break to even occur.
At the front of the race Della Molina had her best race of the year. Running in 6th place going into the final stretch Della employed a much needed (for the team) kick to move into 4th place, beating WWU's top runner by .4 seconds (if that doesn't happen, we don't advance). Iresh, who had slid over 40 places during her episode ran the 4th fastest final 2k of anyone in the race to eventually place 21st (earning All-Region honors). Jaclyn Denham would finish next for the 'Cats taking 36th place, with teammate Jacqueline Cascione following just .2 seconds behind. As previously mentioned, just .2 seconds behind Cascione was Concordia's #4 Claudia Vera. Sophie Pellitier would finish as the 'Cats #5 in 42nd, while Hannah Wirth would follow just 2 places behind. Despite not having their best days, both Pelletier and Wirth would factor positively into the eventual outcome. Wirth's finishing in front of Concordia's #5 added a point to CUI's score, thus helping the eventual tie, and of course Pelletier beat CUI's #5 in the head to head department helping our tie-break outcome.
In looking back, there were so many variables, that could have left us on the outside looking in. We're very fortunate and grateful for the opportunity to return to the NCAA stage, and hope to run a much better race in Joplin in 2 weeks.
Men's 10k Championship:
The Chico men entered the weekend as the top-ranked team in the region, but anyone who's been paying attention, knew that Pac West Champs Azusa Pacific had a Very powerful team. APU's top runner Juan Diego Castro is a 3:57 miler who ran on Oklahoma State's NCAA Champion DMR team last spring. Number 2 runner Felix Perrier had an extensive World Athletics profile before arriving at APU, and #3 Nixon Korir is a track All American and 8:49 steepler. Also, not making it easy on the 'Cats was the stacked Western Washington squad that boasts no less than 5 sub 30 min 10k guys from last track season. WWU had easily won the GNAC title two weeks prior. This year's regional would most likely be a slugfest between the three conference champs.
Given the muddy and windy conditions, the men's race was predicably tactical in the early going. With the course consisting of 6 X mile-ish oblong loops, each lap held a long head-wind stretch, that no one seemed excited to lead into. The first three loops were relatively relaxed for top runners in the field, but still fast enough to string the field out to some degree. At 5k the 'Cats had their top-6 nicely placed among the 40ish strong lead pack. APU had their 6 in the group, as did Pomona. Western Washington was surprisingly spread out with at least 1 or 2 scorers not running among the leaders at the half way point.
Throughout the race Tom Heinonen, (the legendary PA announcer) spoke to the 'Cats lead at each 2k checkpoint, but if you were present you knew that the top 3-4 teams had top-5 runners all running within a few seconds of one another. Between 6k to 8k the lead pack stretched and a few 'Cats fell from the front, while APU's top-3 guys moved into the top 5-6 overall. With 2k remaining Mr. Heinonen announced to the crowd that we had a new team leader, as APU had a 42 point score and the Wildcats had slid back to second with 59. Pomona ran in third with 82, and WWU ran in 4th. Down by 17 points with just over 6 minutes of run remaining, the 'Cats needed to execute well over the final loop, and they might need some help from APU.
Thankfully the Wildcat men Did do some great work over the final lap of the competition. Leading the way was Junior Brayden McLaughlin, our #4 at the CCAA Champs. Today Brayden was the region's 4th best runner, while teammate Dylan White finished just behind in 5th. APU countered with a 2nd place finish by their sub 4 guy (Castro), and a sixth place run for their second runner. Daniel Hernandez would cross as the 'Cats third finisher, taking 7th, while APU's Nixon Korir would finish 10th. Both Hernandez and White had passed Korir over the final 2k. Joshua O'Neill (14th), Matthew Gordon (17th) and Mario Giannini (18th) would all pass APU's #4 Felix Perrier over the final lap, securing a decisive win for the Wildcats. Gordon, who'd missed the entire year of running during the '22-'23 school year with illness, somehow found a way to match his CCAA finish at today's regional, en-route to his first All-West Region run. Hunter Dougherty had a tough day at the office finishing 56th overall.
With the win the 'Cats advance to the NCAA champs for the 24th straight season, dating back to 1999, when a scrappy Chico crew placed 6th on the same Joplin course that the '23 'Cats will run. The Wildcat men extend their regional winning streak to 7. They have also won 18 of the past 21 regional titles, with the only blemishes being 3 runner-up finishes. Congrats to all the Wildcats who have helped create this amazing dynasty through the years.
