Wildcat men, women dominate top places in Aggie Open 3K
Chavez, Costales, Handa, Spence finish within 2 seconds of each other

Saturday, March 12, 2011
Comments & photos by Gary Towne/Chico State Distance Coach

This weekend a good portion of our Distance team made the trek down to Davis, CA to renew our once great rivalry with the Aggies. Most of the distance crew enjoyed an early season 3,000m run with a few tackling the shorter 800 and 1500m distances. Overall performances were quite promising, and hopefully a good indicator of some fast times to come at the more traditional distances. I’ll quickly re-cap the 3k’s because I’m short on time and want to get this out today if possible.

Men’s 3,000m: Chico State true frosh Dan Parker won the morning heat of the 3k with a sizzling 61 second final revolution. The very talented and race savvy frosh looks to focus on the 15/8 distances this spring, with an eye on the 15/5 events in the future. Teammates Donald Truesdell (8:45), Dayne Gradone (8:48) and Alfonso Cisneros (8:49) followed closely. Unfortunately the results combine both heats, which doesn’t show how well the Chico men in the opening heat collected most of the top spots.

In the “A” heat of the men’s race, Davis’ Gregor Loyd Smith and Chico Alum Michael Wickman provided early pacing duties at the front of a talented lead group. Loyd-Smith pulled the pack through 1600m in a swift 4:27 split and Wickman took them another 400m before peeling off the oval. As soon as Wickman exited the oval Davis’ 3:47 guy Jonathan Sees hit another gear that none of the chasing ‘Cats felt comfortable going after. Anthony Costales was the first to venture off the front of the chase pack, as the gritty Sophomore transfer from ARC hit a 64 second lap from a kilometer out. This move separated him from teammates Brent Handa, Julian Spence and Isaac Chavez who by now had shed all chasers other than Kenyan Daveson Marindich (Academy of Arts).

While Sees sailed on to an eventual UC Davis School Record (8:13) Costales hammered out another 65ish second lap and pressed as hard as he could to the finish. With his teammates closing down the final stretch, trying to beat Marindich to the line, all four ‘Cats (and Marindich) would hit the tape within 1.5 seconds of one another (8:20-8:21). Although the 3k isn’t an official NCAA event, I have been keeping an unofficial 3k men’s list for some time and Chavez, Costales, Handa, and Spence now rank 3,4,5,6 on this list. Only Scotty Bauhs and Steven Springhorn (3:43-1500m guy) have run quicker in the past 20+ years here at CSUC.

Women’s 3,000m: In the first heat of the women’s 3k Sophomore Hayley Swanson put herself into perfect position from the gun, running among a solid lead quartet. As these four slipped away from a chase pack that was content to run a few ticks per lap slower, Hayley went for a ride in search of a big PR. This was achieved as the steeple specialist dropped her open 3k best to 10:31 (a substantial improvement over the 10:59 a year ago). Making her way through the field nicely in the second half was Paige Henker who looked strong, finishing 5th in 10:37. Just behind was close friend and teammate Sarah Mikesell who PR’d at 10:41. Red Shirting frosh Emily Stickney (10:47 final time) also recorded a substantial PR.

In the afternoon (A heat) the Chico women prepared for a tough race with Davis and USF’s top women. Although the early pace at the front of the pack was a bit conservative for those trying to break 10, it was nice to have a fairly large pack still in contention through a 5:24ish 1600m split. The fifth lap brought a noticeable change in pace at the front at USF’s Jana Stolting (10:40 HS runner while a prep in Florida) seized the front and ratcheted down the pace. 80-81 second laps had now turned into 76-77’s and soon there was only Stolting and Chico’s Tori Tyler.

From 600m out, Tyler recorded a 75 lap and looked strong on the heels of her USF foe. Unfortunately Tori lost the battle of the final 200m, and Stolting would take the “W” in this one. Tyler would settle for 2nd, while running the fifth fastest 3k in our school’s history. Teammate Kara Lubieniecki PR’d as well with her 10:00 for second place (11th best in Wildcat History) and Stephanie Consiglio notched a HUGE PR of 10:02 while just losing a sprint finish to Davis’ Alycia Criderbring. Alia Gray served notice that she’s back from the season ending injuries that hampered her fall and spring seasons in ’10 as she rolled to a nice 10:12 finish time. Cross Country All American Shannon Rich Pr’d at 10:20, with 15/8 specialist Anna Eicholtz finishing just a few ticks behind. All in all the ‘Cats had taken 6 of the top-10 spots in the 3k event today.

Women's 1500m: Brooke Bergestrom, only Cat distance runner not entered in the 3000K, made her debut in the metric mile by just missing going under 5 minutes.

Coach Hanf reports from Davis: The Wildcats were back in action on Saturday for week 3 of the 2011 season, competing on our former rivals' track...UC Davis. Several PRs and season best marks were posted, as well as a few all-time top 10 performances. The distance team finally made their individual race debut, albeit in a exhibition distance- the 3,000 meters, which is no longer contested at the NCAA championships. 2 sections per gender were offered, with the "B" section competing at 9:30 in the AM while the "A" section raced at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Dan Parker, a freshman from Chico HS was the winner of the "B" race in a time of 8:38. Parker was the North Section 1600m champion last year (4:16) and a 2010 State Meet qualifier. RS frosh Isaac Chavez led the Wildcats across the line in section 1 in 8:20.44 and finishing second overall. Anthony Costales (8:20.60) was right behind him, while Brent Handa (8:21.91) finished fifth, senior Australian exchange student Julian Spence (8:21.93) was sixth. Hayley Swanson was the top lady 'Cat in the 2nd section, slicing off 28 seconds from last year's race in a time of 10:31.

Six Wildcats finished in the top 10 in the first section. Tori Tyler (9:53.24) and Kara Lubieniecki (10:00.24) finished second and third in the event, respectively, establishing new PR’s. Tyler is now 5th on the all-time list. Stephanie Consiglio came in fifth with a time of 10:02.77; Alia Gray finished eighth (10:12.80), followed by Shannon Rich (10:20.26) in ninth place and Anna Eicholtz (10:22.26) in 10th place.

Consiglio's performance earned her the BETH BURTON WILDCAT OF THE WEEK AWARD. Coach Burton has started a new tradition...she knits one cap a week (with cat ears) and we award to a shining performance after every meet. Consiglio battled injuries all of last year. Her best 1500m last year was 5:02. Her race on Sat. was back to back 5:01s! Her 2 mile PR from HS was 11:19. She is well on her way to posting some NCAA qualifying marks this season!

The 'Cats excelled in the shorter races as well... Hurdlers Aimee Rodgers and Kelly Clancey each posted an all-time top 5 performances. Rodger's won the second heat of the 100m Hurdles in a time of 14.55 to place 5th overall in the race and 5th on our school’s list. She later placed 5th in the 400h in a time of 64.51. Kelly Clancey was 3rd in that race with a huge PR of 63.52. The senior heptathlete had not competed in that event until this year. She is now less than a second from the school record, which was set by Katie Prucha at last year's conference finals. Rodgers and Clancey teamed up with Michelle Burley and Melissa Rene to finish fourth in the 4x400-meter relay; their best time of the season at 3:59.10. The 2003 400m relay team of Erin Loftin, Melanie King, Courtney Sargent and Abbey Butler (48.55) has been removed from the top 10 list. Burley and Rene` teamed up with Amilia Santos and Nicole Cooper to run 48.30 and move into 8th on the all-time list while bumping the 2003 team. It’s been a nice 8 year stay on the list ;-)

Isaiah Haywood won the third heat and Jordan Alford-Helems the fourth in the 200 meters. Haywood finished sixth overall with a time of 22.19, while Alford-Helems came in 10th at 22.42. Oliver Shabram finished third in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.85 and decathlete Jon-Michael Delima was sixth in 57.39. Talor Fulfer finished fourth in the javelin at 186’1”. Finishing 6” ahead of him was Wildcat alum Troy Lalaguna! Senior Cody Uebelhardt PRd in the javelin for the first time since his freshman year...he did it 4 times! His top throw of 167’5” placed 7th in the field of 21 spear chuckers.

Julianne Conrad had another outstanding day for the Wildcats in the field events. She posted the sixth best mark in Chico State history in the triple jump, coming in third overall with a PR leap of 37-feet-09.5. She came up just 1 cm shy of an NCAA provisional mark in the high jump, but finished fourth in the event with a season-best effort of 5-feet-05.75. Conrad also placed sixth in the javelin with a heave of 115-feet-03. Her efforts earned her CCAA athlete of the week.

The Wildcats are on spring break this week but will be right back in action again next Saturday as we travel to Sac State for the Hornet Inviational.