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.
Weather conditions during the day in San Francisco proved to be superior to Stanford as Gator Stadium set into a hill and flanked by trees and building shielded the athletes competing from the blustery winds. No such protection was found at Stanford's more exposed track. However by the evening portion of the meet, easing winds brought very favorable conditions although the cooling temperatures made viewing the competition an arduous affair.
Times Posted per event over the weekend by Wildcat Distance Runners: Men: 800m: 1:54.12-Clinton Hayes (Sr) SF Invite (Fri) 1:52.84-Clinton Hayes (Sr) Stanford Invite (Sat) 1:57.47-Jon Ahmann (Fr) SF (Post-1500*) PR 2:04.73-Tony Palermini (Jr) SF (Post-1500*) *second race of the day 1500m: 3:55.11-Manny Mejia (Sr) Stanford 3:57.82-Dan Parker (Fr) PR SF Invite-USATF Jr Qualifier 4:00.33-Jon Ahmann (Fr) PR SF Invite 4:09.99-Tony Palermini (Jr) SF Invite Steeplechase: 9:24.06-Alex McGuirk (Fr) PR SF Invite-USATF Jr. Qualifier, Fastest CSUC true frosh ever 9:47.06-Kevin Svahn (Fr) SF Invite, Debut for Steeple-true frosh 5,000m: 14:27.68-Anthony Costales (So) PR, Previous (15:23), NCAA provisional, #11 all time CSU 14:30.61-Julian Spence (Sr) PR, NCAA provisional-SF State Invite 14:35.39-Adrian Sherrod (So) PR, missed NCAA mark by .40! 14:53.82-Alan Cuevas (Fr) USATF Jr Qualifier, Top-5 true frosh marks for CSUC for 5k 14:54.68-Joseph Rivera (Jr) SF State Invite, PR, first sub 15 14:58.66-Dayne Gradone (Fr) Sf State Invite, PR, first sub 15 15:11.75-Zack Zadrozna (Fr) SF State Invite-Zack’s second best 5k 15:23.14-Donald Truesdell (So) SF State Invite, tough run for Donald 10,000m: 29:30.06-Isaac Chavez (Fr) Stanford PR, NCAA provisional Mark, #2 All Time CSUC 31:10.13-Johnny Sanchez (Fr) SF State, USATF Jr Qualifier. Top 5 all time True-frosh CSUC, debut 31:10.97-Jeremy Brummitt (Fr) SF State, USATF Jr. Qualifier, Top 5 all time true frosh-CSUC, debut 31:39.38-Alfonso Cisneros (Fr) SF State, USATF Jr. Qualifier (PR) 32:23.17-Dillon Breen (Fr) SF State, USATF Jr. Qualifier (Debut) 32:34.65-Geoff Hull (Fr) SF State, USATF Jr. Qualifier (Debut) Women’s Marks: 800m: 2:15.22-Anna Eicholtz (Sr) PR SF Invite, #10 CSUC All Time and Post 1500m 1500m: 4:37.38-Anna Eicholtz (Sr) PR SF Invite, #8 All Time CSUC (just misses NCAA Provisional) Steeplechase: 11:02.23-Amy Schnittger (So) PR SF Invite, #6 all time Chico State, NCAA Provisional Mark 11:29.20-Shannon McVannel (Jr) 5,000m: 16:33.49-Kara Lubieniecki (Sr) #3 all time CSUC, NCAA Automatic Mark (9:55-3k split en-route would be #7 all time CSUC 3k) 17:03.65-Stephanie Consiglio (Jr) # 5 all time CSUC, NCAA Prov. Mark, 18:03 former PR! 17:58.17-Shannon Rich (Jr) 18:06.98-Hayley Swanson (So) PR 18:09.15-Natalie Galvan (Fr) PR 18:18.63-Paige Henker (So) 18:19.88-Brooke Bergesen (Sr) PR 18:39.62-Emily Stickney (Fr) PR 18:52.57-Olivia Guadiana (Fr) 19:03.58-Michelle Johnson (So) 19:21.81-Nicole Reed (So) PR 10,000m: 35:02.12-Tori Tyler (Sr) Stanford, NCAA Provisional Mark, missed Auto by 2.2 seconds! 35:20.21-Alia Gray (Jr) PR Stanford, NCAA Provisional Mark, #2 all time CSUC behind Tyler 38:29.65-Jessie Varela (Fr) Red Shirting, Debut for 10k! 38:40.01-Sara Mikesell (Fr) Debut for 10k 39:27.47-Hillary LaBelle (Jr) Red Shirting
Women's 5000m: A year ago, Junior Kara Lubieniecki rolled to her first sub 17 clocking, with a fine 16:45 final mark. This year the Senior looked at the 16:30-:35 range with an eye on the possibility of the 16:25 school record dancing through her head. Last year’s CSUC Scholar Athlete of the Year (yes she IS good at everything :) rolled through early splits in the 5:16/10:35 range for 1600 and 3200m that included a 3K split around 9:54-9:55(PR). Lubieniecki eventually found herself on the heels of Kenyan DII counterparts Ruth Keino and Meriam Kipng’eno of U of Alaska Anchorage (7th and 12th at NCAA’s this XC season). With DII pride at stake, Kara hammered through the tough 10 and 11 laps with 80-81 second splits, before ripping a 73 closer en route to her 16:33 PR. The time ranks her #3 on the stout CSUC All Time List behind NCAA runner-up Katie Lee (16:25) and current teammate Tori Tyler (16:29). Perhaps lost in all of this was the fact that Kara ran to within 6 seconds of the win! A very fine outing for a great student athlete!
Men's 5000m: Sophomore Anthony Costales took his 15:23ish PR to the line in the third heat of the Stanford Invitational 5k on Friday night. Of course workouts and a nice 8:20-3k mark run several weeks previous showed much greater potential. Costales didn’t let his former PR interfere with the carving of a new one. Rolling through 3200m in 3200m (well under his PR) Costales didn’t look back. Had it not been for a miss-calculation of laps (he thought he had 2 to go, when there were actually three), Anthony probably would have run 5-6 seconds quicker. With 1200m remaining he forged to the front of the chase pack and left the large group behind, putting several seconds on a group that would eventually run 14:20. After seeing his mistake, at the actual 800m to go mark, Anthony converted to damage control and did a wonderful job of not throwing in the towel and fighting for each place and second. The result was a huge 14:27 PR and an NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Given the ever improving Top-10 list, Anthony missed the #10 CSUC time (14:26/Brent Handa ’10) by a mere second. Of course he has two more years to improve on this mark.
Women's 10,000m:
A year ago Tori Tyler and Alia Gray ran a pair of NCAA Auto marks in the same race with Tyler smashing the school record, (34:47) and Gray hitting a 35:29. Since that race both have missed months of training due to injuries.. and the NCAA Auto mark was dropped to 35:00? Both approached the start of the ’11 version with cautious optimism and hopes for a well paced mark that would guarantee a berth to the upcoming NCAA meet. Thankfully both managed this feat quite well. The pair hit early splits of 5:36 (1600), 11:11 (3200m) and 17:29 (5k) running among a large and talented pack of mostly DI runners.
Despite missing the entire fall of running, Tori ran what might have been her most methodical and smart races to date, notching a second 5k that was only 3 seconds slower than the first, including a nice 80 second closer. Tori’s 35:02 was her second best clocking to date, and virtually guarantees her entry into the NCAA meet in May. Alia hung strong as well, and even while running much of the final 7-8 laps alone, still managed a 9 second PR and moved into the #2 spot on the All Time CSUC list.
With good health between now and the NCAA race in May, both Tori and Alia should be in much better shape than they were for the Stanford run this weekend. You might remember that the pair came out of nowhere two years ago (they were the final 2 to make the 16 person field) and finished 4th and 6th at NCAA’s. We’ll hope for a similar outcome, only maybe a few places better even :)
Men’s 10,000m: Since their Top-10 NCAA XC run this fall, everyone has been excited to see what Isaac Chavez and Brent Handa would do over the 25 lap distance on the track. As a true frosh (and while red shirting) Chavez recorded a fine 30:19 PR at the Mt Sac Invite, while Handa ran a 30:28 in the same race. This year both approached the Stanford race with much higher goals. Veterans of the 10k distance know, that playing your cards right, as far as which pack you choose to run with, and what moves you choose to cover, can make or break your race.
On Friday night, this theory was definitely put to the test as a fiery Chavez covered moves of top athletes in the field, that were shooting for the DI 29:00 standard. Running with his teammate like he does so often in practice, Handa followed these aggressive early race moves, that included a few 68 second laps.. The Chico faithful, inhaled collectively every time Chavez would cover another move from the pack up front, as everyone knew that the 10k was a long tough race, and running sub 70’s early might result in a tough final 5k.
Chavez was able to withstand the early surges quite well, but teammate Handa (9:22 at 3200m) struggled with the pace in the 11th lap. As Handa slipped from the pack into a sea of nothingness behind, his pace almost immediately went from 70’s to 74’s and 75’s. Eventually, Handa was swallowed by the main pack, which was composed of guys just trying to crack the 30 minute barrier. Unfortunately the early pace had taken the race right out of Handa's leg causing him to free fall to the back of this pack. Despite hitting 5k in under 15 minutes, a sub 30 was now out of the question, and an NCAA qualifier would have to be earned on another night. Before completely trashing his legs, Handa stepped off the track at 8k (24:17-the hard way).
As Handa fell from the pace, Chavez kept hammering the 69-72 second laps, running with a group of 3-4 guys who had peeled off the main group ahead during the fourth mile. Isaac’s 5k (14:42) showed that sub 29:30 might be in the cards, but the pace slowed from his group, and soon there was just he and Xavier standout Tommy Kauffmann working together to keep the pace going.
With a final circuit that took 64 seconds to cover and that included a final burst that put him to the tape just before former HS All American and Arcadia Invite 3200m Champ Mat Tebo, Isaac Chavez had secured a trip to the NCAA meet with a 29:30 final time. The mark ranks him second in Chico State history for the 10k event behind.. Yes you guessed it.. Scotty Bauhs (who is the fastest in DII history). With three more years and this year’s NCAA meet to improve on this mark, look out for Chavez, he’s going to be something special.
Men's 1500m: (Friday morning)
Senior Manny Mejia was pulled out to a hot early pace and faded a bit over the third lap, before recovering and managing a quick final 100m. The result was a 3:55 seasonal best, but a bit off his 3:50 PR run at the conclusion of the ’10 season.
Men's 800m: (Saturday Afternoon)
Clinton Hayes improved on his tactics and seasonal best time in his second 800 in two days. At the Stanford meet Hayes looked much stronger over the final meters of the race, which carried him to a solid 1:52 finish time, on a day when No One finished under 1:50, even in the fastest of heats.
San Francisco Distance Carnival results & commentary
