With Stanford cutting the number of distance races in half this year entry standards were much greater than they have been in past years. This is the reason for the San Francisco Distance Carnival, which worked out fairly well for a number of folks who have hopes of running at Stanford in the coming years. In any event, the ‘Cats had 4 athletes running in Palo Alto (all men) with two running on Friday evening, and the 800m guys on Saturday. After a quick drive from the completed SF meet, coaches and a few supporters arrived in Palo Alto ready to watch Michael Wickman and Angel Marquez compete on the big stage.

Friday:
Men’s 1500m: Michael Wickman’s 3:46.11 run last Spring while red shirting had earned him a spot in the second fastest heat of the meet at Stanford. Unfortunately that doesn’t guarantee a fast and honest paced race. USC’s Irek Sekretarski a large lumbering gentlemen seized the lead and proceeded to run a slowish 62 second initial lap. Unfortunately no one was willing to take over the leading duties so Sekretarski lumbered to another lethargic 62 second revolution. Hitting 800m in 2:05 still wasn’t enough to illicit a reaction from the pack so the pace remained above the very achievable 60 second rhythm that most of these athletes were capable of.

Having watched the race several times on Flotrack’s video files It is very apparent that Michael spent most of the race in lane 2 while the pack was continually bunched and wide given the slower pace. The combination of slowish early pace and running something above the actual race distance left Michael with less of a kick than we’re used to seeing from him. With a lap to go the pack sprung to life and 1200m was reached in 3:06 (Wickman’s lap was a 61). Even a 43 second final 300 and 58 flat final revolution wasn’t enough to give Michael the time that he was searching for.

Looking at things on the bright side, Michael’s final time should earn him a spot on the line at the NCAA meet. Championship races are often times tactical so Michael’s run on Friday will be a good lesson learned for the very capable junior from Walnut Creek, CA. Having watched his workouts for the past 3.5 years I can honestly say that Michael appears capable of running 3:45 right now if presented with the right race and conditions. By seasons’ end 3:42-3:43 appear very achievable.

Flotrack video of Michael’s Race: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234811/165159

Men’s 5,000m (Heat III): Senior Angel Marquez has always raced well beyond what workouts may indicate, which has always made him a very exciting person to watch on the track. Each year he has lowered his 5k best running 15:23 as a true frosh, then 14:42 as a RS Frosh, 14:29 a year later, then 14:18 a year ago before finishing the season with an NCAA runner up performance at the 1500m distance. Angel raised the level of his running this fall, earning his first All American honors in XC. He appeared poised for an amazing senior season on the track, but workouts and results from early races have been marginal at best. Most teammates would agree that Angel would appear to be just inside our Top 10 5k guys if you watched workouts only. Thankfully they do run the races and thankfully Angel doesn’t dwell on tough races or workouts. Despite a delayed/abbreviated warm up that included some dialog between athlete and coach in which athlete thought that his race was 40 minutes later than it actually was (someone told him it was?!?!) Either way, Angel slipped off his skate shoes and plopped on the trainers 40 minutes before race time and had plenty of adrenaline flowing during a quick 15 minute warm up run.

Knowing he might need a sub 14:20 to guarantee a spot on the line at NCAA’s Angel settled into the middle of a quick moving pack recording splits in the 67-68 second range. Afraid to get him too excited too early in the run I asked our rowdy fans to hold off on the CHHHHIIICCCCOOOO chants until the second half of the race. So with 6 laps remaining and with Angel looking like a million bucks the Chico Chants began. Text messages from Alum Scott Bauhs in Mammoth Lakes, CA (who was watching the race live on Flotrack) assured me that our Chico Chants were reaching even more than Angel. Eight Laps was reached in 9:07-9:08 and Angel was moving up toward the front of the pack. During the final 1600m the pace quickened and Marquez covered the moves that needed to be covered to remain among the lead group. With 300m to go Angel ran in 6th place but his 1500m speed/experience shone through as he shot by 3 slowing athletes and gave chase on two who had broken away previously. Although he wasn’t able to track down the two ahead, Angel did place 3rd overall and nailed a nice 4 second PR, putting all of the rough workouts and last week’s race behind him.

Angel’s 14:14.86 moves him into the third spot on the All Time CSUC 5k list behind NCAA Champions Scott Bauhs and Charlie Serrano and just ahead of good friend Eddie Silva who has a great case for a faster conversion given the dirt tracks that he ran on in the ‘70’s! ;)

Flotrack video of Angel’s 5,000m: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234811/165160

Saturday:
Men’s 800m: Coming off emotional early season 1:51’s the week before I was holding my breath on whether David Wellman or Clinton Hayes would be able to improve on those marks, especially given a pretty tough track session two days previous to their race.

Heat II
Clinton led his heat for 500 meters, taking rival Alaska Anchorage’s top 800m guy (James Pettigrew) through 400m in a perfectly paced 54 seconds. As Hayes tired, Petigrew (who had ran 1:50.3 in Austraila before attending UAA) sped by and recorded a nice NCAA provisional mark (1:50.76). Several other athletes passed a fading Hayes who was sliding quickly out the back door on his way toward the back of the pack. Not a great day but Clinton will gear back up for the big meets ahead.

Flotrack video of Clinton's heat: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234811/165359

Heat III
David Wellman appeared well positioned and in a great heat as the leaders passed 400m in 54 seconds. Wellman became a bit antsy in the next 100m though and tried to make a move on the penultimate turn with 330 remaining. Running well outside of Lane 1 and expending a bit too much energy down the backstretch appeared to cost David over the final 150. Although his body was not cooperating as he’d hoped, David fought hard and finished with a respectable 1:53.40 run. In hindsight David wishes that he had been a bit more patient in the third 200m, saving more for the finish stretch. Mid distance running is as much about the strategy and smoothing out your energy over a very tenuous stretch, so David has logged this experience into his memory and will also look to bounce back in the coming weeks.

Flotrack video of David's heat: http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234811/165374