Chico State men and women teams come out victorous at Wildcat Relays
Chico State distance crew solid despite nagging injures, recent illness limiting numbers

Saturday, February 26, 2011
Comments & photos by Oliver Hanf/Chico State Womens Coach, Tom Cushman

The Spring 2011 season got off to a great start, as both the Chico State Men and Women teams look to defend their CCAA crowns. On Saturday Feb.26 the sun broke through after a stormy week that actually brought some snow on Friday! Both our our teams posted dominating victories over conference rival Humboldt State, Oregon Tech and our neighbor Butte College.

WOMEN SCORING-
1. Chico State- 226
2. Humboldt- 101
3. Oregon Tech- 84
4. Butte College- 69


MEN SCORING
1. Chico- 215
2. Butte- 167
3. Humboldt-124
4. Oregon Tech-75

Two meet records were set....both in victories. Senior Kelly Clancey (18'3.5") and freshman Kasey Barnett (18'4.5") combined to set a new meet standard at 36'8", beating the old mark by 8". Barnett's debut to collegiate athletics landed her on the all-time top 10 list at Chico, in a tie with her Chico HS coach Kristi (White) Stanley, who jumped 18'4 1/2" in 1989. Clancey later won the 400m hurdles in a time of 64.75 (8th on our all-time list).

Senior Julianne Conrad (5'5.25") paired with frosh Kaitlin Clancy (5'3.25")in the high jump, to break the meet record by a half inch. Clancy is a frosh from Davis HS, and NO, she is not related to Kelly Clancey.

On Thursday and Friday, March 3 and 4th we hosted the 26th annual Chico Multi-Event Classic. Both Talor Fulfer and Kelly Clancey successfully defended their title and both seniors earned NCAA provisional qualifying marks. Clancey scored 4690 while Fulfer scored 6650.

Recent illness, nagging (but so far minor) injuries decimated the Chico State distance squad, limited the number of available runners for the team's opening meet. Still Coach Towne was able field three teams in the mens and womens 4 X 800 relay and 4 teams each in the Distance Medaly Relay although most available athletes were roped into doing double duty during the meet.Consequently no Wildcats ran individual races this year.

Women’s 3,000m: The women's 3000m, devoid of any Wildcats, devolved into a ho-hum affair with Butte's Mary Finn breaking away early and extending her lead throughout the race to win by over 30 seconds in a field with only four other runners.

Men’s 3,000m: Despite no Wildcats in the field, the men's 3000m was a spirited affair with Humboldt's Eric Malain holding a small lead over teammate Nicholas Arguelles and Butte's Phillip Graber at the 1600m mark. A surge by Malain with 1000m to go opened up a decisive gap over his closest competitors which he held to the finish. A gutsy move by Graber on the penultimate lap put him into second, unfortunately the Chico High grad was unable to maintain the tempo and was passed by Arguelles coming down the homestretch.

Women’s 4 X 800m: Solid performances by Alia Gray (2:28), Katie Spencer (2:30), Stephanie Consiglio (2:21) and Kara Lubieniecki (2:23) led the Chico "A" team the victory over competitive squad from Oregon Tech. Amy Schnittger (Chico C) held off Natalie Galvan (Chico B) in the openning leg of the relay but it was consistency of her teammates (3 steeplechicks & Sara Mikesell) that allowed them to place third overall.

Men’s 4 X 800m: The Chico "B" team overcame a well rested Joseph Rivera (Chico C) impressive opening leg by closing with three sub 2:00 legs themselves, with freshman Daniel Parker (1:56+) and senior Clinton Hayes (equally fast but ended up around 1:58 after closing it down to jog the final 15m) headlining the effort.

Women’s Distance Medley: Despite a strong opening effort by Stephanie Consiglio (3:48) in the 1200m, the Chico State "A" found itself in second place behind a team from Humboldt State. The 3 meter gap enlarged to 10m by the time Kara Lubieniecki received the baton with four laps to go. A strong closing lap by the school 1500m record holder still left a sizeable gap remaining at the end of the race.

Men’s Distance Medley: The men's Distance Medley was all Chico affair, with the Cats claiming the top 4 places as Humboldt State elected to run their top runners in the 3000m. Australian transfer Julian Spence (Chico B, 3:08) battled Joseph Rivera (Chico A, 3:06) for supremacy in the opening 1200m, but it was the overall consistency of effort that gave Chico "C" team the victory. Senior Manny Mejia duel with Brent Handa proved anticlimatic perhaps because Mejia came into the race fresh and Handa did not (he ran a leg in the 800m).