Billings, MT -- I'm proud to report that both Chico State cross country squads have once again qualified for the NCAA Championships. With twin regional wins over the weekend in Billings, Montana the 'Cats qualified for their 24th straight NCAA Championships together.. a streak dating back to 2000. For the men it was the 19th regional title in 22 years, and for the women it was number 10 in 21 years. Eight of the 14 competing Wildcats earned All-West Region honors. The 'Cats now turn their sights on the NCAA Championships to be held Saturday Nov. 23 in Sacramento, CA. Please find short recaps and results for each race below.
Men's 10k Championship:
The men's race began with a fairly honest first mile, driven mostly by the front-running of GNAC individual champ Jeret Gillingham. The plan for the Chico guys was to stay tucked into the lead pack and Not bite on any early moves that were made, unless multiple guys from a top contending team started to bridge away. Lots of cycling type strategies at work here and the 'Cats did a great job of executing their plan. With conditions as close to ideal as you can get in Billings on a November day (44 degrees and 10-12mph winds) most of the top seeds operated much like our crew did, just staying attached and trying to avoid actual leading.
Approaching mid-race it appeared that the Western Washington guys had a plan of going to the front, injecting pace to the lead group, and then settling back into the fold. With each surge and kilometer covered the lead group thinned a bit. By mid-race (15:34 split) the lead group was about 20 strong, and your Wildcats had 6 runners still in the mix. Hunter Dougherty had gotten out a bit conservative and was never quite able to connect to the heels of teammates toward the front of the main group. As the race entered the fourth/fifth miles the lead group continued to fracture and the 'Cats 5/6 guys Damian Garcia and Daniel Hernandez slid from the pace. Thankfully Western Washington's frisky early race surging seemed to have a few of their key runners in distress as well. At the 8k mark the lead pack was down to around 10, and the 'Cats had 4 in the group (Mario Giannini, Dylan White, Matthew Gordon, and Brayden McLaughlin). With no other team having more than two in the final selection, the 'Cats were in control of the run with 2k remaining.
The next kilometer brought more splintering of the front group, as only 6 remained in contention for the win with 1k to go. WWU's Ryan Clough was now at the front, and only Mario Giannini was able to match his increase of speed, as the race approached the final 400m stretch to the finish. Dylan White became locked in a dual with APU's conference champion Jared Wright in a battle for the bronze medal. As Clough rounded the final turn to the 400m finish-stretch Giannini made a bid for the win. Hitting the jets to the best of his ability Giannini's 3:50 1500m speed saw him edge away from Clough and the rest of the field. With the win Mario joins a very decorated group of former 'Cats who have won regional titles (Pat Boivin, Scotty Bauhs, Will Reyes and Eddie King.. All multi time All Americans). White would be edged at the line by Wright for third, but the 'Cats now had two across the line in the top-4 overall. Central Washington would take the next two spots (claiming individual spots to NCAA's). WWU's second finisher Jeret Gillingham had fallen back to near 20th place at mid-race, but stormed through the field to claim 7th. Matthew Gordon would finish next for the 'Cats in 9th and WWU's #3 Kevin McDermott (13:52 5k guy) would finish just behind in 10th. The 'Cats would seal the victory by putting runners 4/5/6 across the line in 12th/14th, and 15th, before WWU's 4/5 duo who placed 17th and 18th respectively. Hunter Dougherty would close out the 'Cats day missing the final All Region spot by just :09 seconds. Western Washington would easily claim the second auto spot to NCAA's, while Biola would grab the third. The NCAA would later add Pomona (4th), and APU (5th) to the National fields, giving the West solid representation at the upcoming championships in Sacramento.
Women's 6k Championship:
The Women's race went out extremely fast from the gun, and our line-up was fairly disbursed as the pack flew by yours truly after a kilometer of racing. Seattle Pacific's 10k NCAA runner-up Anika Esvelt was a woman on a mission, hammering at 5:00 pace through the kilometer, with only Alaska Fairbanks' standouts Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham attempting to stay with her. APU's 19:56 6k gal Jessica Kampman bit on the early move initially, but slowly settled back to a very large chase pack that had formed.
At the mile mark the 'Cats were fairly scattered through the front third of the field. Iresh Molina hadn't had the best start, but like clockwork was able to find and attach to her sister by the mile. The 'Cats Marbella Flores had gotten out very aggressively in the first quarter mile (leading the race for several meters) and placed herself with the twins at the front of the main chase group. Quite a few places separated the 'Cats front 3 and our 4/5/6/7 runners at the mile, but not a whole lot of time, so there was plenty of opportunity for the Chico women to move into a potential winning position.
The middle kilometers of the race saw the Fairbanks duo separate from Esvelt and eventually cruise to a 1-2 finish. The twins pressed at the front of the chase pack as they dropped tiring runners with each passing kilometer. Unfortunately the fast early start seemed to be taking it's toll on Marbella as she fell back to teammates Jasmine Fletcher, Sophie Pelletier and Kaya Scuba by mid run. Despite the growing distance between the twins at the front of the field, and our remaining scorers, it appeared that we still might have a chance at the win, as most of Western Washington's scorers ran quite close to ours, and their #1 was well off the twins. Biola had two women in the front group, but both were dropped by the twins by 4k. Fairbanks would have a huge advantage on the field, scoring 3 points with their 2 runners at the front, but their pack was falling back over the middle kilometers.
As the women approached the finish stretch, a battle for third place had formed between Della Molina and APU's Kampman. Della would barely lose the kick, thus matching her 4th place regional performance of a year ago. Iresh would cross in 5th just a few seconds back. Esvelt would finish next in 6th, and Biola would begin their scoring with 7th and 8th place finishes from their first two runners. Western Washington would start it's scoring with 12th and 16th place runs from their top 2. After 20 finishers the top 3 teams each had just 2 across the line, but the 'Cats enjoyed the advantage given the low sticks that the twins provided. Biola would strike next with the 23rd place runner while WWU would take 27th, and Jasmine Fletcher followed next in 28th. Scoring 3 runners the 'Cats were up by 1 point over Biola. WWU would put numbers 4 and 5 across the line in 29th and 31st but Kaya Scuba and Sophie Pelletier would solidify the 'Cats win with 33rd and 34th place runs. Biola, who had a top runner DNF on the day would fall to third overall with their final scorer finishing in the 60's. Marbella Flores (44th) and Sienna Bianchi (51st) would finish the 'Cats day in the 190 athlete field.
Although our 1-5 spread was a bit wider than this coach is comfortable with (Both twins did PR on the day) the Chico women were able to secure the program's 10th regional title, and most importantly an automatic bid to the big dance in Sacramento. A year ago our team tied for third and won the tie-break by .2 seconds. This year the ladies hoisted the NCAA trophy overhead, and now turn their attention on getting back into the nation's top-10.
Next up: NCAA Championships on Saturday 11/23 @ Haggin Oaks Golf Course, Sacramento, CA
Men's race begins at 10:00am, Women follow at 11:15am.
