I’m happy to announce that somehow, (between what has been some of the wettest and windiest weather that I can remember in the month of March), we were able to enjoy amazing conditions and some Very fast marks between the SF State Distance Carnival and the Stanford Invitationals. Even though the NCAA has continued to drop the times needed to provisionally qualify for the NCAA meet in the distance events, we managed to place 7 different athletes on the NCAA’s elite list. Three other ‘Cats missed NCAA marks by 1 second or less, while a group of 7 frosh men posted USATF Junior National qualifying marks. Although I don’t have the exact number at hand, I would venture to say that 80-85% of the ‘Cats who competed at the meets this weekend recorded PR’s in their respective events.
The San Francisco State Distance Carnival meet started early on Friday morning with the running of the women’s 10k, and almost without break (very few sprint races) we had distance athletes circling the track through the entire day. The SF portion of our day finished at 5pm with the fastest of three heats of the men’s 5,000m. From there we buzzed down the peninsula to Palo Alto, where the Distance section of the Stanford meet started at around 6pm. The Stanford distance carnival ran through the evening, finally concluding with the second heat of the men’s 10,000m, which started at 10:48pm! Yep, trackside from 7am, until almost midnight..It was a very long and exciting day.
Women's 10,000m: True frosh Jessie Varela led RS frosh Sara Mikesell and red shirting Junior transfer Hilary LaBelle through this 25 lapper, which was a debut for all three. Varela used a big time negative split (19:25/19:04 for the two 5k’s) to stop the clock at 38:29, which was good for 5th place. Mikesell followed at sixth overall (38:40) and Labelle managed a 10th place 39:27 run.
Men's 10,000m:
In the faster of the two heats run, a pair of true freshman Jerremy Brummitt and Johnny Sanchez mixed it up with the leaders throughout the race by running amazingly even splits of: 4:56, 9:56, 14:56, 19:56, 24:59 through 8kilometers. When the lead pack dissolved during the final kilometer, the Chico crew hung tough, remarkable given their relative inexperience and youth. Fresno native Johnny Sanchez, closed out the race with a final 400 in the 67 range, to stop the clock at 31:10.13. Fellow red shirt Jerremy Brummitt finished less than a second in arrears. RS frosh Alfonso Cisneros hung on well after an aggressive early pace to come home with a 31:39 PR, that was good enough for 9th overall.
In Heat II, red shirts Dillon Breen and Geoff Hull ran amoung the race leaders for much of the race. The pair passed 5k in 16:12, which Breen improved upon in the second half of the race to stop the clock with a nice 32:23 10K debut. Hull, despite struggling a bit over the final kilometer, still managed a quick 32:34 debut.
All five ‘Cats made the USATF Jr. Championships qualifying mark of 32:45 and punched their tickets to the big event held this June in Eugene, OR.
Women's 1500m (Heat 3):Senior Anna Eicholtz nailed a nice PR with her 4:37 run to just miss the 4:36 NCAA provisional standard. The Senior from Red Bluff ran very strong with early splits of 76, 73 (2:29), 74 (3:44) to made a bid for the win with 300m remaining. Unfortunately, Arkansas Little Rock standout Sanna Mustonen finished exceptionally well to hold off Anna despite her 52.5 closing 300m split.
Men's 1500m (Heat 3): A nice run for frosh and RS frosh Dan Parker and Jonathan Ahmann. Parker, a true freshman from Chico HS, hit the USATF Jr. mark while making a great run for the win on Saturday. I had his final 800m at 2:03, which shows potential for a quicker time in a race with more even pacing. Ahmann tied his PR from earlier in the season, but considering a recent injury that took him out of training for nearly a week, this was a nice step forward.
Women’s Steeplechase: Sophomore Amy Schnittger ran her way onto the NCAA provisional list with a nice 11:02 PR in the barrier event. Amy now stands as the #6 steepler on the CSUC All Time List. Teammate Shannon McVannel a 10:48 performer and ’09 All American, struggled again today notching an 11:29 over the barriers.
Men’s Steeplechase: Two red shirting frosh toed the line in the barrier event on this day for the ‘Cats. After his 9:41 debut, I mentioned that Alex McGuirk would be a steepler to watch given his very fluid hurdling ability and solid running background. On Friday he took another nice step toward great things, notching a 9:24 for his second steeple race ever. The new PR lands him well under the 9:37 USATF Jr. Qualifier and puts him in a great position as he looks to what the next 4 years of development have in store. Teammate Kevin Svahn ran in the second heat and despite losing precious seconds due to some rough hurdling, Kevin still managed a respectable 9:47 mark. With more hurdle experience, look for Kevin to join his teammate on the line in Eugene this June.
Women's 800m: Three hours later, Anna Eicholtz raced superbly once again, this time in the 2 lapper. While tired legs denied her the heat win, Anna still managed to come away a PR and a spot on the All Time CSUC top-10 list.
Men's 800m: Clinton Hayes ran a bit ragged in the fast heat of the men’s 800m as he battled down the stretch for a hopeful win. CAL alum (1:49 guy) Francis Gadayan and Academy of the Arts’ Kenyan Kenedy Kurgat won the battle of the final 100m. RS Frosh Jon Ahmann doubled back from the 1500m nicely in posting a second PR and a win in his heat (1:57).
Women's 5000m: Junior Stephanie Consiglio dropped a huge PR in the metric 3 miler, clocking a swift 17:03 PR. Running through early splits of 5:26/10:56, Consiglio ran the entire race well below her former PR pace. Even with the aggressive tempo, the Junior from Oceanside was well back at mid race (many had gone out Way too fast). Passing at least 10 athletes over the final 2k, Stephanie ended up 2nd overall and nearly skipped the 17’s altogether (former PR was 18:03!). Steph’s time is the #5 best in CSUC history and is an NCAA provisional qualifier. In every year other than 2010, this mark would have easily gone to NCAA’s. This year looks like another fast year though, so we’ll have to take another 10-15 seconds off, to assure a trip to the big dance. Teammate Shannon Rich had a rare tough outing having been drug through 1600m, too close to 3k pace. A hard fought effort kept her in the 17’s though, as she stopped the clock at 17:58.
In the second and third heats, the over riding themes tended to be a huge pack going out too fast, and a lot of suffering by all over the final 4-5 laps. Thankfully a good number of our women managed Pr’s, despite the crazy pacing from the front. Soph Hayley Swanson from Granada HS in Livermore enjoyed a nice 18:06 PR, while teammate Natalie Galvan (RS Frosh) followed closely in 18:09. Soph Nicole Reed doesn’t garner a lot of headlines on the deep Wildcat Roster, but the hard working Soph. managed a nice 19:21 PR, which was a big drop from her previous 19:48 best. All in all, a good showing by the ‘Cat distance gals.
Men's 5000m: In the fastest men’s heat Julian Spence, Joseph Rivera and Adrian Sherrod ran near the front for a good portion of the first 3k, with Spence hitting 3200m in 9:18, Rivera in 9:22 and Sherrod just a few ticks behind. Rivera fell back over the final kilometer while Sherrod gradually moved through the field of tiring runners. Spence worked hard to cover the moves of the leaders, but eventually lost touch with Idaho’s Geiger and Utah Valley’s Josh McCabe. Still Spence was the first Wildcat to hit the tape, crossing the line with a 4 second PR and NCAA provisional mark (14:30). Sherrod, who missed all of December and most of January of running with a hamstring injury, closed well to record a 15 second PR (14:35). Rivera held on well enough to dip below 15 minutes for the first time (14:54).
In the second heat, true frosh and current Wildcat Red Shirt Alan Cuevas fought hard among the leaders throughout the race and finished 2nd overall in a swift 14:53 time. This is one of the better True Frosh marks in Wildcat History. RS frosh Dayne Gradone, also running in the lead pack for most of the race, joined the Sub 15 club.
Stanford Invitational results & commentary
