On Saturday the Wildcats sent a partial squad to Stanislaus’ Kim Duyst Invitational to enjoy an early season invitational against a mix of competition on Stanislaus’ brand new facility. Steeplers got their first taste of water fun for the season, while the 5k crew remembered what it’s like to circle the track 12.5 times........and a host of mid distance folks enjoyed 15/8/4X4 action. I’ll do my best to quickly summarize below.
Women’s Steeplechase: the women’s steeple has been a strong event for the ‘Cats since it’s inclusion into NCAA competition. On Saturday we flexed our steepling muscles a bit as the Chico women swept the top 5 places. Chico’s red shirting All American barrier standout Shannon McVannel led the Chico charge with her 11:21 clocking. Red shirt frosh Amy Schnittger bumped into a 9th place tie on the All Time CSUC steeple list with Steeple Pioneer Lisa Renteria as both have identical 11:24.05 clockings (CCS represent!). True frosh Hayley Swanson enjoyed a sub 12 debut for the event!
Men’s Steeplechase: Returning All American Beau Rogers looked sharp in his seasonal debut over the barriers. Running negative splits, the senior from Watsonville, CA dominated the field with his 9:18 NCAA provisional qualifier. Teammate Miles Dunbar running his first steeple ever, looked splendid as he passed 4-5 athletes over the final 1200m en route to a 9:55 debut!
Men’s 1500m: Junior Manny Mejia took the race by the horns here, sailing away from the pack with 63/2:06/3:09 opening splits. Had it not been for 28 year old Roosvelt Cook a former Fresno State standout, Mejia would have run away with the win. Cook caught and passed Mejia with 350m remaining and Mejia held tight on his heels through the next 150m. Off the final turn, Cook was too strong for Mejia and Manny had to settle for second place with a nice 3:57 early season mark. Clinton Hayes ran strong for third place and teammates Kyle Robinson and Carlos Suarez notched solid early season placings and times.
Women’s 1500m:
Another week, another exciting winning kick finish by Junior Kara Lubieniecki. Lubieniecki and teammate Anna Eicholtz ran among the pack for a tactical early 800m, that included a slow 79 second lap to the 800m mark. Eicholtz sailed to the lead and Lubieniecki followed as the pair recorded a more reasonable 75 third lap, with only Stanislaus standout Denali Foldager still en-tow. The trio sailed down the backstretch with 300m to go with Lubieniecki now at the front. Off the final turn Stanislaus’ Foldager made a move to pass Eicholtz in hopes of reeling in Kara, but the speedy Lubieniecki caught a final gear that ensured her of the win. Foldager held off Eicholtz for second but Anna had to be pleased with the 4:44 PR, after such a slowish first 800m. Kara’s final 300m split of 51 puts her closing speed into perspective.
Men’s 800m: It’s not often that 800m races turn tactical, but this one did. With most of the top seeds having run the 1500 earlier, 400m was reached in a slowish 58 seconds. Junior 1:50 guy Clinton Hayes immediately took the lead and gapped the pack by a large margin. Teammates Manny Mejia, Kyle Robinson and Carlos Suarez broke from the pack as well, and sailed around for a more aggressive finishing lap. Although he faded a bit over the final 100m Hayes held strong for the win (56.3 final 400m) with Mejia, Robinson and Suarez taking the next three places. The final results tell a different tale, with Hartnell’s Battaglia and the two Academy of the Art Kenyan’s taking 3rd,4th and 5th, but their times were recorded in Heat II.
Women’s 800m: Before the women’s 800m I asked Kara Lubieniecki if she’d ever dipped under the 2:20 mark during her HS career (given that the 17:00 5k runner hasn’t run one in college yet). She informed me that she hadn’t yet. Well, Kara took care of that minor detail on Saturday while finishing behind teammate Anna Eicholtz who also notched an impressive PR (especially given their 1500m run 2 hours before). Notch up more points for the ‘Cats as they were well on their way to winning the team score competition for the second week in a row.
Men’s 5,000m Final Doubling back from the 1500m earlier, Roosevelt Cook held a steady 70 second pace rhythm at the front for the initial 3k, before slowing to 73’s and 74’s. JC State XC Champ Daniel Tapia swung around the tiring Cook and sailed to an easy victory. Chico’s Brent Handa (14:37 PR) hung strong with the early pace, but fell off hard over the final 1600m. Running a bit more conservatively in a chase pack from 1600-3k Chico’s Alex Sharp and Joey Kochlacs eventually caught a pack of tiring runners in the final mile. The final 1600m wasn’t pretty, but competition was high, and the final result was an interesting final kilometer of racing. Using this competition to his advantage Senior Alex Sharp finished strong to record his first sub 15minute 5k (14:53 finish time). Teammate Kochlacs apparently was having digestive difficulties that prevented the level of exertion needed to run the time that he appears capable of currently (I won’t go into detail here). But in any event, Joey finished with a nice 14:55 season opener and looks forward to running in the 14:30’s in a few weeks at the SF Distance Carnival. Handa held on for 8th place, just getting under the 15 minute ceiling. Having missed some quality training over the winter due to injury, Handa just needs a few more weeks of training to make the early pace stick. Perhaps the most exciting finish of the day was in Heat II of the men’s 5,000m. In this race red shirting frosh Zachary Zadrozna a product of the Rocklin Thunder program, closed the final 200m in 29 seconds to record his first collegiate win. Of course Zach was in the slower of 2 heats, and his time stood as the 20th fastest of the day after the faster race But it was a nice start to his collegiate running.
Women’s 5,000m: Steeple champ Shannon McVannel was solicited by yours truly to rabbit the women’s 5k for 6-7 laps to help take some of the work off the Chico women, who were the top seeds in the race on Saturday. The planned pace was 87.0 per lap and McVannel was doing a splendid job of hitting these marks for 2-3 laps. Then teammate Stephanie Consiglio passed Shannon, taking the lead and dropping the pace into the 85/86 range. The Chico women followed but now the rabbit ran in second place and sensing that her work was done, Shannon dropped out just before the 2k mark. The moral of this story is NOT to ruin a good thing while you have it. Consiglio looked strong leading through 3200m or so, before her splits started to slow to the 88 range. Shannon Rich and Paige Henker now took the front in an effort to keep the pace around 18:00 tempo. Over the final 800m Henker proved to be too strong for her teammates (and the field) as the Chico native sailed to an 82 split from 600m out. A final 200 of 35ish, gave the RS Frosh her first sub 18 minute clocking of her life to this point. Rich closed well over the final 200m as well, but just missed breaking the 18 minute mark (18:11 former PR). Consiglio held on strong to record a nice PR of her own (18:03) but she was kicking herself after for the poor decision to pass the rabbit early. Katie Spencer finished with a strong early season mark (18:21) and Jonah Weeks actually finished in 18:34 in 6th place (despite the incorrect results below).
Random Notes from Saturday’s meet and the season to date...
1. Beau Rogers becomes our first NCAA Provisional qualifier with his 9:18 seasonal debut
2. Paige Henker becomes the 6th ‘Cat on the current roster to have cracked the 18 minute barrier, and Shannon Rich/Stephanie Consiglio missed by a combined 4 seconds! With a host of others who have run in the low 18’s already, we should have well over 10 women under 18 this year, and with a few in the 16’s if all goes well!
3. Alex Sharp, or “Tahoe Alex” as his teammates refer to him as (he’s from South Shore-L.T.) became the 14th ‘Cat on this year’s roster to have cracked the 15 minute barrier. Hopefully we’ll have close to 20 under this mark by the end of the season.
4. Junior Anna Eicholtz a product of Red Bluff HS has joined the distance group for the first time this spring after focusing her energies on the 400/800 in her first two years in Chico. She ran a pair of PR’s on Saturday (4:44/2:16) so watch out for Anna as her training and strength catch up with her leg-speed.
5. It was mentioned earlier that Stanislaus has a new track facility. Very nice setting, long turns/short straights that allow for quick times. Since Stan-State has only hosted 3 meets on the facility to date, several ‘Cats recorded Stadium Records on Saturday. Congrats to Anna Eicholtz (800), Kara Lubieniecki (15), Beau Rogers (Steep), Shannon McVannel (Steep), and Paige Henker (5k) for setting the new standards for those who race there next to try to take down. These record performances’ days are numbered as the 2011 DII NCAA Championships are scheduled for the new Turlock facility.
Missing ‘Cats: We have a number of athletes who have yet to open up this season, and for a variety of reasons. 14:20 5k guy Tim Cannon is just getting over a nasty bout of Planter Fascia that took him out of this past XC season. His return is going well and he enjoyed a 2 X 2 mile tempo session yesterday, so he’s coming along nicely. We’ll plan on an early return for Tim to racing. Brendan Scanlon (XC All American 14:47/30:47 Pr’s) was in good form until sickness took him out last week. He should be ready to open up with a 5k at the SF Distance Carnival on Friday the 28th. Michael Wickman (1:49/3:43 PR’s) was in solid shape coming into the semester, but has picked up a toe problem that has limited training. He seems to be doing better and is gradually adding speed back into his daily running routine. He’ll probably open up on March 20 in Davis, or the next week at Stanford. Jordan Fairley (9:11 steeple as soph) has endured more than his share of bad luck. Achilles injuries have taken two track seasons away from him, and most recently (this fall) Jordan rolled an ankle bad enough to stretch a muscle away from it’s attachment on the fibula, which forced him to take the entire winter off running completely. He is hoping to return sooner than he did a year ago (Remember the CCAA debut where he broke his toe.. Ouch!) 8:57 3200m guy Isaac Chavez has enjoyed a solid spring of training and is preparing for upcoming races in Davis (this weekend) and at the SF meet (5k) and a hopeful 10k at Mt Sac, where he’s shooting for a low 30 min run. Team captain and all around amazing guy Thomas Whitcomb (9:33/15:00 pr’s) is dealing with a muscular problem in the lower leg that came on just before the Wildcat Relays. He will either open up at the SF meet or in Chico at the Twilight Classic in April.
On the women’s side Senior Julie Shaw has had a slower start than usual due to a planned winter trip to Africa where she visited her boyfriend who is doing research on Monkeys. Those that know me, know that I was jealous (a fan of monkeys I am). Anyhow, Julie is gaining steam as she tries to improve on the early season 17:23 that she posted a year ago, before she had the emergency appendectomy that in essence took her out of the season. All American Alia Gray is also finding herself into great form in workouts and plans to open with a low key 1500 in Davis next week before getting after a 5k in San Francisco the week after (or a 10k at Stanford-if she gets in). Fellow All American Shannon McVannel (5th at CCAA’s and 4th at NCAA’s a year ago) is red shirting this spring as she tries to lower her PR’s to eventually challenge the NCAA’s best for an NCAA title in the steeple. Hannah Dillard (Chico HS Alum) has struggled with shin issues each year, and is again coming off an associated flare up. She’s running 25 miles a week currently (all on dirt) as she builds toward a hopeful track race or two toward the end of the season. Michelle Johnson (also of Chico HS fame) is a name to keep on your radar. I would be surprised if this hard worker doesn’t run in the 17:30’s by season’s end. Michelle picked up a winter injury, but is now back and building fitness and confidence with every passing week.
Video Footage from this weekend’s meet can be found here, thanks to Jordan Fairley and Thomas Whitcomb:
