Hello and greetings from the Cross Country/Distance Running office at Chico State University. It’s great to be back in the post race write-up business after a much-needed break following the long cross country season. With two squads full of depth, the upcoming track season promises to be one of our best ever.

Last weekend a handful of ‘Cats traveled to Turlock, CA where Stanislaus State University hosted the Kim Duyst Invitational. As you may already know, Stan’ State has been granted hosting duties of both the CCAA and NCAA Championships this track season, so this would be an opportunity for a number of the ‘Cats to become acquainted with the new facility in the Central Valley. Competition came from all levels, with a number of top JC programs and four year schools represented on Saturday. For a variety of reasons only a handful of the ‘Cats distance crew made the trip to Turlock, as most will open their seasons next weekend with 3k’s at the Aggie Invite in Davis. Also on tap over the weekend was the Ben Brown Invitational in Fullerton, CA where a number of our true frosh (who are red shirting) competed in the deep 5k fields down south. Several very impressive marks were achieved by this group. I’ll share this info following the discussion of the Turlock events.

Women’s Steeplechase: The plan with this meet was to put most of our steeple women into an early season race to establish the much needed experience over the barriers before we approach the bigger meets that begin in late March. With solid depth in this event on the women’s side, our women dominated the distance-hurdle event on Saturday. Amy Schnittger a Soph from Aptos, CA broke away from teammates Shannon McVannel and Katie Spencer in the second kilometer and never looked back. Brooke Bergesen, Hayley Swanson and Katie Spencer would provide the backing needed for a 1,2,3,4 sweep, overcoming McVannel's (4th in the NCAA final 2 seasons ago) unfortunate DNF.

While Schnittger’s winning time of 11:15 wasn’t a PR but wasn’t too far off, teammates Bergesen and Swanson would each enjoy nice PR’s, running very even splits during the race. Please note that the meet results include seed times so don’t be confused by these marks. The time to the farthest right is their actual performance from Saturday.
 

Men’s Steeplechase: Here’s a name to remember… Alex McGuirk. Alex is a red shirting frosh from Mountain View, CA. He was the final male athlete that we were able to take aboard this past fall. It was our good fortune that he chose to attend Chico despite being buried on the incoming frosh depth chart. Alex is the best pure hurdler that I’ve worked with in my 19 years of coaching at CSUC. In the fall he enjoyed a solid XC season that included a nice 25:40’s run at Willamette and a 15:16 5k in our track time trial at season’s end.. But Alex’ legacy at Chico will most likely come in the form of becoming a Very Good steepler. On Saturday Alex debuted in the barrier event and gave us a glance of what’s in store.

From the gun the modest field appeared afraid to make the pace happen at the front. Despite lacking experience but equipped with hurdle form that would make some pro’s envious, our frosh ventured to the front and kept the pace in the upper 70’s per lap. At around 2k, Southern Oregon’s Dennis McCaffrey (a day for the Mc’s!) took the fore and dropped the pace back to the 77 range. Alex covered the move but was unsure if he could sustain the pace and soon he had fallen to third place giving McCaffrey and Santa Clara’s Ben Demaree (a 24:44 XC guy) several meters. Suspecting that inexperience was holding Alex back from covering the move of the two ahead, yours truly encouraged him to stay close, suspecting that he would close well over the final meters.

True to form the frosh came to life as he rounded the final turn running the final 150 at 1500m pace. Demaree had no chance as Alex flew by, but could the young frosh make up a 20m lead on McCaffrey who was also kicking for the win? The answer was “not quite” as Alex hit the tape with a full head of steam, but just .2 behind the SOU runner. Suspecting that he would close quickly I decided to get his final lap split (68!). As experience, and fitness combine with the amazing gift for hurdling that we have here.. Alex should take considerable time off this mark in the coming weeks, months and years. Already he’s just a few seconds shy of making the USA Junior Championships which will be held this June in Eugene, OR. Stay tuned!

Men’s 1500m: Perhaps the highlight race of the day for the Wildcats on Saturday was the men’s 1500m. Despite not running any of the Top-10 from this fall’s XC roster, the ‘Cats enjoyed placing 5 at 4:00 or faster with 3 earning PR’s. Leading the way was Julian Spence a native of Australia who’s on exchange to Chico for the spring semester. Spence, who’s more of a 5/10 guy came into Saturday with a 3:57 PB, run in Australia this winter. With Stanislaus’ Dawson Vorderbruegge leading the way from the gun Spence and his Wildcat teammates jumped on the train and ran hard throughout. Although he wasn’t able to cover a 60ish third lap by the Stanislaus competitor Spence showed his toughness and strength by gapping the rest of the field, in the pursuit of a possible win. Julian’s 3:54.7 speaks well to what’s ahead in the longer distances (he’s a 14:34 guy already in the 5k). True frosh Daniel Parker looked very strong throughout hitting the tape 7th overall and just missing the USATF Junior Championships qualifying mark by less than 1 second (Safe to say Dan will accomplish this at some point this season). Teammate Clinton Hayes ran the first half of a very impressive early season double by running his third sub 4 1500m ever. Donald Truesdell and Jonathan Ahmann followed just a tick of the clock behind with 4:00 clockings respectively, each PR’ing by substantial amounts.

Women’s 1500m: The ‘Cats would send Anna Eicholtz and Natalie Galvan to the line in the women’s metric mile. A year ago Eicholtz would end the season with a nice 4:38 PR at the CCAA Championships, and Galvan a red shirting frosh was just trying to break 5:10. This year both had enjoyed very impressive early season workouts leading up to the Stanislaus meet. Stanislaus alum April Montgomery took the early lead, but immediately slowed the pace down to a pedestrian clip. By 200m Eicholtz decided to take the front and even with a surge in pace the 400m split was very slow (81.8) at the front. Eicholtz led through 800m hitting a 78 second split through 800m (2:40). Realizing the field was content to run barely under 5, Eicholtz shifted gears in a big way, hitting a 71.7 for lap three, splitting the field for good. Teammate Natalie Galvan ran among the top 5-6 through 1200m, shifting gears nicely herself. Anna would keep the tempo hot as she closed with a 70 final revolution for her first win of the season. Galvan fought nicely closing with a 73 of her own to record her first sub 5 (4:52 for third place overall)
 

Men’s 800m: A young Chico Mid Distance crew doubled back from the 1500m for the two lapper. True frosh Dan Parker, running in an outside lane got too good of a start and flew down the backstretch with a several meter lead over a talented chase pack, that included teammate Clinton Hayes (1:50 pr). Parker hit 400m with a very slight lead over the pack that was closing the gap with every meter. The group swallowed the tiring frosh on the penultimate turn and Parker appeared on his way to running 2-something.. but thankfully he re-engaged as the 5th or 6th place guy passed. Clinton Hayes hit the final turn in good position at the back of the main pack and capable of the win if the final 100m went his way. Unfortunately fresher legs would prevail as Stanislaus’ 1:52 guy Terrance Ellis would take the win. Hayes would finish 5th with a nice early season 1:54 clocking. Dan Parker lost a few more places in the final meters but hung tough to nearly PR for the second time of the day. John Ahmann would double back with a 2:00.08, Steven Bradley-2:02 and Tony Palermini-2:03 respectively.

Women’s 800m: Have you ever watched one of those Olympic finals races where no one in the front wants to take the pace out and the pack jogs through opening splits that are painful to watch? This was Saturday’s women’s 800m. Former Stanislaus State and current New Balance runner April Montgomery (2:13ish PR) sprinted the first 100m to seize the lead, before slowing the pack to a crawl as they headed around the second turn. Given Anna’s leading of the 1500m earlier she was instructed to “run to win” and not from the front for this one.. so the crawling continued and 400m was reached in something well off the desired pace (74ish?). Anna gave chase down the backstretch when Montgomery hit the jets, but coming off the final turn, Eicholtz lost some momentum and meters and tossed in the towel in the final 50meters. Not one of her better moments, but expect great things as her season continues. Galvan finished a solid double with a 2:25 after her 4:52 earlier in the day. Coach Trevino’s 4/8 runners Morgan Cavannaugh and Anna Marquez followed Galvan closely with 2:25 and 2:26 marks.

Men’s 5,000m Final The men’s 5k was perhaps the only “rough” race of the day for the ‘Cats although we only had two red shirting frosh guys toeing the line in this one. Despite being told by his coach before the start of the race to “take it easy from the gun” our overly ambitious (putting it nicely) young frosh Tommy McGuan felt obligated to lead a talented group through 800m before finally surrendering the leading pace. Scratching my head and wondering how his early start translated into “Taking it easy from the gun” we watched the youngster roll through early splits of 4:51, 9:48 and 14:53 and running 15:30 the hard way. Hopefully next time out he’ll listen to coach and work up and not back through the field. Freshmen! ;v) Fellow Frosh Dillon Breen also struggled in this one, hitting a rough 16:04 for his debut at the 5k distance (on the track). Hopefully next week goes much better for this pair.

Women’s 5,000m: Three Chico State Red Shirts took to the track in the women’s 5k and two of the three ended with nice PR’s. Despite a “frisky” first lap (81) Jessica Varela, Emily Stickney and Hillary LaBelle settled and looked strong, going through 1600m. Varela a true frosh from Trabucco Hills HS, ran comfortable throughout, eventually posting a nice PR for the 5k distance. LaBelle who’d made it through 3k with her teammate, struggled mightily over the final 1600, but still managed a respectable 18:44 finish time. Emily Stickney also struggled late, but ran her first sub 19 5k, finishing with an 18:53 final time.
 

Ben Brown Invitational: As mentioned earlier a handful of true frosh made the trip to So. Cal to participate in the Ben Brown Invitational at Cal State Fullerton. Three of the five competitors hit the USATF Junior Standard for the 5k. Johnny Sanchez -14:59, Alan Cuevas-15:01, and Jeremy Brummitt-15:02 all enjoyed great runs and dipped under the USATF 15:05 standard for Juniors, which should qualify them for the upcoming USATF meet, to be held in Eugene, OR this summer.

From Coach Hanf: The team took two busloads down to Turlock. Stanislaus State will also host the CCAA and NCAA championships so it was a nice early season chance to test-drive the facilities.

Things got started with a bang, as Ashley Webster broke the school record in the hammer and won the event with a mark of 159'1". The toss surpassed Sarah Ward’s 2009 school record toss by 1'6" and Webster’s own PR by over 11 feet.

Nicole Cooper also had a huge day, winning the 100 (12.46) and 200-meter sprints (26.26) and anchoring the Wildcats’ winning 4x100 relay team that recorded the seventh fastest time in school history (48.23). She paired up with Amilia Santos, Kasey Barnett and Melissa Rene'. It was the fastest time for Chico State since 2001, when Courtney Sargent, Jamara Stallworth, Tami Porter and Melanie King ran 47.96. Cooper’s 200 time is 10th best all-time. Jen Wissmath’s 25.30 in 1991 is removed from the list after a 20 year stay!

Other top performances included Aimee Rodgers, who ran 14.98 to win the 100m hurdles, Anna Eicholtz who won the 1500 in 4:45, Adam Fry-2nd in the pole vault (14'3"), Talor Fulfer-2nd in the javelin (185'7") and Clayton Francis who was 3rd in the triple jump (45'9")

Coach Freitas had 3 women go past 36' in the triple jump- seniors Julianne Conrad (36'11.75") and Brandy Tummings (36'6") and freshman Kaitlin Clancy (36'0").

The team travels to Davis on Saturday March 12 to compete at the Aggie Open. Field events start at 9:30 while gun for the first race will be shot at 10:00. The last race at Woody Wilson track will be at 4:50. For those of you in the Davis/Sacramento area, we hope to see you there!