The 'Cats enjoyed a good day of racing on Saturday at Davis' Aggie Invitational. Nearly all of the distance crew took on the not oft run 3k distance. Given the large number of entries for the 7.5 lapper, meet management broke the field into 2 heets. The slower of the two was run at 9:30am, in cold blustery conditions. The faster heat was run nearly 8 hours later in windy but warmer conditions. Despite Mother Nature's constant reminder that winter isn't quite gone yet, the 'Cats enjoyed a fairly nice day of running. In fact 3 of the 4 heats were won by Chico State Distance runners and many PR's were notched along the way. Several other Wildcats competed in 8's, 15's and 5k's as well, so we'll quickly update each run.

Men's 3000m: AM Heat: Early splits in the men's "B" heat were slowish ones, as no one from other teams appeared capable or willing to take the pace.. Chico's Joey Kochlacs, Jeremy Brummitt, Phil Graber and RS'ing frosh Geoff Bogan all took a turn at the front, but 1600 was reached at 4:46 (barely sub 9 pace). A 69 fifth lap was a start of true racing and revolutions #6/7 were run in 68 and 67 seconds respectively. The race for the win boiled down to Chico's Jerremy Brummitt (Fr), Phil Graber (jr) and Unnat runner Ben Rainero (a 4:12 HS miler last spring). Off the final turn the trio ran stride for stride and it looked like anyone's race. Brummitt found an ultimate gear in the final 30m that propelled him across the line first in 8:44.39. Rainero followed less than a quarter of a second behind, and Graber only .5 off the win. Bogan would hold on well for 4th in a respectable 8:51.

PM Heat: With the winds blowing pretty hard by this point of the meet, tactics would play a big role in outcome of the faster heat. Yours truly solicited the help of Geoff Bogan to "rabbit" the PM heat to help it from becoming a tactical affair like the earlier version had. Bogan certainly did this while pulling the pack through early splits of 65 and 66 (2:12). Daniel Tapia who recently ran a 2:16 marathon at the Olympic Trials in Jan. took the pack through a 68 third lap and another 68 saw a relatively large group roll through 1600 between 4:29-4:35.

With no one wanting to let the next person completely get away in the early going (partly due to the wind) a few too many guys were pulled through 4 laps at a pace that wasn't exactly the most ideal for current fitness levels (especially given the conditions). This produced a pretty rough second half for a number of runners, including several Chico State runners. Up front the lead pack whittled down to Tapia, the Kenyan duo of Daveson Marinchich, and Amos Maru, and Chico's Isaac Chavez and Anthony Costales as the 5 hit 2k with another 68 second revolution. Johnny Sanchez who'd been squeezed from the lead group around the 1600 mark now faded back into a second pack that held teammates Miles Dunbar, Josh Linen and Joseph Rivera. Anthony Costales was the next to fall from the lead pack, and now it was a 4 man race with the Kenyan's pressing the pace at the front. Approaching 600m to go Isaac took the lead of the race and extended his already lengthy stride. His 63 second lap, followed by a 30 second final 200m (into a stiff headwind) sealed the win for the Chico sophomore. Marinichich, Tapia and Maru followed some 4-6 seconds back. Josh Linen notched his first sub 8:30 mark, and Miles Dunbar enjoyed an outdoor 3k PR as well. Perhaps the most mature run of the afternoon was that of red shirting Soph Daniel Parker who must have passed 8-10 runners over the final half of the race, on his way to recording an 8:30 PR. The remainder of the 'Cats were victims of overzealous opening laps, that definitely took away from their ability to close the races out effectively.

Women’s 3,000m: Women's 3,000m: Red Shirting true frosh Xiang Tak took an early lead win an 82 second initial revolution and never looked back.. holding her advantage until the fourth lap, when a strong chase pack caught Tak, who's pace had settled a bit. The pack hit 1600 in 5:39 and 4 athletes were in contention for the win, including Tak and true frosh teammate Tiffany Heflin. Laps 5/6 were covered in 84 and 85 seconds, and the quartet quickened to an 82 from 600m out. With Stanislaus' Thiele becoming a victim to the quick 7th lap, it was now a 3 woman race with 200m to go (just as the men's am heat had gone down). Showing some nice closing speed Heflin found a final gear in the last stretch to hit the tape first in a PR 10:30.15. Her final 200m had been covered in 37 seconds! Tak held on nicely for 3rd, and Rebekah Bahra, Olivia Guadiana and Jackie Mansoor would give the 'Cats ½ of the top 10 finishers in the early race!

PM Race: Just when the winds had become fairly annoying they picked up even more during the women's fast heat of the 3k. Thankfully the field didn't seem too affected by the tough headwind as they went into the homestretch each lap. A very talented field breezed through initial laps of 77, 79, 78, and 77 (5:13). Alia Gray (10:12 pr) hung tough to a trio of Aggies and a Japanese athlete Yokouma Misaki. Misaki's teammate Nanaka Izawa had slipped away in the third lap and had a controlling lead going at the mid way point. Trailing the lead pack by just a few ticks were Wildcats Amy Schnittger and Stephanie Consiglio.

With the wind taking it's toll in the second half, the chase pack (with Gray) slowly became a three person group with Gray battling Davis' talented Katie Fry (2:09/4:55 HS pr's) and Kristine Lozoya. Gray took the front of this group for good from 600m remaining and hit a 79 second lap. A 36 second final 200m into a howling wind gave the senior a second place finish and a whopping 22 second PR! (9:50). Fry just held off the hard charging Anderson of Stanislaus as well as Yokouma of Japan. Stephanie Consiglio would notch a PR while finishing 7th (10:02 respectively) as would teammate Amy Schnittger who stopped the clock at 10:04.00. Katie Spencer's 10:16 and Paige Henker's 10:17 were both lifetime bests, as was Quetta Peinado's 10:22. Jessica Varela would finish the PR barrage with her 10:30 clocking as well.

Other Wildcats in action on Saturday....

Women's 2k steeple: Soph Natalie Galvan recorded a 7:34 for the rarely run 2k steeple. Having come into the season relatively out of shape, the 11:22 runner from '11 has a good amount of work to do to get back into low 11 minute shape.

Men's 5k: Frosh Kevin Svahn and Dillon Breen had a pair of rough outings in the 5k this weekend (15:26/15:43). A very weak field left the pair running alone for the final 10 laps, which allowed both to settle far too much. Next year we'll avoid running 5k's at the Aggie meet given the scattered field.

Women's 5k: Hayley Swanson ran to an 18:51 season opener in the 12.5 lapper. Although she had more people to race than our 5k men did, it wasn't the greatest outing for Swanson who ran in the low 18's in 2011.

Men's 1500m: 10k specialists Geoff Hull and Eric Garibay dropped down in distance on Saturday taking on the 1500m. Garibay was easily on 4:0's pace before things unraveled over the final lap, leaving him with a 4:14 opener. Hull ran a fairly evenly paced 4:12 PR.

Men's 800m: Hull would double back running an even paced 2:05. In the same race, red shirting frosh Brett Douville managed a nice 2:00 opener.

Women's 800m: Red shirting frosh Olivia Watt who's making the transition from 400m runner to 800/1500m runner took another step on Saturday. Her initial 30 second 200m split was definitely a product of inexperience, but also of competitiveness. As her experience and fitness catch up with the latter, Watt will become quite a mid distance runner. On Saturday Olivia hit 400 in 66 and slid to a 2:23 final time, with a final windy 200m of 40 seconds. The clocking was still a PR, but there's a lot more out there for this aggressive racer.

Next up: Most of the 'Cats distance crew will take this coming weekend off racing, but will return to the oval for the home Wildcat Invitational on the 24th.

Coach Hanf reports from Davis:
37 our of our Lady Tracksters competed at the Aggie Open. Along with host UC Davis, Sacramento State, Stanislaus State and a slew of high level open runners provided lots of stiff competition for us in this early season meet. Our 4 x 100m relay of Amilia Santos-Erika Kalmar-Melissa Rene`and Nicole Cooper, who were already ranked 8th on our all-time list at 48.25, improved their PR to 47.86 which moves them up to a 3rd place tie with the 1986 team of Karen Lyon (#3 on our Hep list)- Hall of Famer Gwynne Schwartz-Jones (school record holder in the 400- Atkins (?) and school 200m record holder Sonya Saadati Marden. Not that there is a record for this fact, but Erika Kalmar's 57.95 in the 400 meters is the fastest freshman 400 meter time I've had in my career (starting my 15th year). Shi is only .14 from 10th best all-time. Melissa Rene and Kym Crosby both cracked the 60s barrier for the 1st time this season at 59.86 and 59.96 respectively. Alia Gray passed 5 All-Americans on our 3,000m list; her 9:50.93 on the Woody Wilson track trails only Hall of Famer Jenny Spoon, 5-time All-American Katie Lee and NCAA champion Sarah Montez. Nice debut to her season. She placed 2nd in the race behind Nanaka Izawa from Team Japan. Several more lady Cats posted impressive 3K PRs. Although this race is no longer contested at NCAA and CCAA championships, it provides for a nice early season distance race. Stephanie Consiglio, fresh off her big 4:36 PR in the 1500 last week, posted a 10:02 while Amy Schnittger hit 10:04. All seven of our girls in the first section hit PRs! Frosh Tiffany Heflin (Lassen HS) won the second section in a time of 10:30. Kelly Gundert also landed on the top 10 list with a pole vault clearance of 11'1 1/2". Kelly had last competed in 2007 when she was at San Louis Obispo HS. The 4-year break has done her some good :-) Aimee Rodgers dropped her 400m hurdle season best time down to 64.44. Red shirt Tori Mason (Sacramento HS) got a PR time of 65.03. She is making the most of her red shirt season and looks to have a promising career for us the next 4 years! In the words of Coach Steve-"she will only get better!". The ladies also earned a couple of season best marks in the Hammer throw. Candyce Sannadan (JR-Shasta College)threw 145'10" while Breezy Wallace (SR-Yuba City HS) threw 144'7".

The highlight of the day for our gentleman came in the final event of the day, after the sun had set and the bleachers had emptied. The men's high jump competition started over two hours later than scheduled due to delays in the javelin. The last race had been completed over an hour before our final athlete took his first effort of the meet. Well, the best was saved for last. Michael Souza, who transferred to Chico State from Sacramento City College this January was coming off a big meet the week before, when he met the NCAA provisional mark by clearing 2.11 (6'11"). By the time he entered the competition at 2.07 (6'9"), the rest of the field had already been eliminated. Because the HJ is located rather far away from the bleachers our athletes and coaches don't always get a good view at this event. This time however, our entire team huddled together on the corner of the track (to support Michael and to try and stay warm from the chilly winds that were lashing. Although Michael missed his first attempt, the sheer athletic effort wooed the crowd of Wildcats. He proceeded to easily execute that height on his 2nd attempt and moved up to 2.12 (6'11 1/2") a mark that would certainly punch his ticket to the NCAA's this May. The crowd yelled out a big OOOOOOOH when he narrowly missed and then erupted when he successfully cleared it on then next effort. He then opted to move it up to the automatic NCAA mark of 2.16 (7'1"). Despite not making that height he clearly showed that it is well within range. Stay tuned for future Michael Souza updates! Plenty of fine performances were recorded earlier for the 'Cats. Frosh hurdler Hakeem Dyson, who cracked the 15s barrier last week dropped below 14.9 (14.89) to place second in the the 110s behind DI runner Paul Lyons of Sac State. Andrew Kokinakes exacted some revenge for Dyson, beating Lyons in the 400m hurdles. Kokinakes ran 53.99 to place 2nd, to another DI athlete, Karl Moran from UC Davis. Sophomore decathlete JP Smith had a productive day. He ran 11.26 in the 100, hurdled 15.7 into the wind, cleared a PR 13'7" in the pole vault and then ran a 50.3 lead off leg in the 4 x 4 (see attached pic). Our other event champion on Saturday came in the 3,000m meters, where sophomore Isaac Chavez out-dueled the a Kenyan contingency of Daveson Marinchich (Acadamy of Art) and Daniel Tapia (unattached)to finish in a time of 8:20 (an average of back to back 4:10s in the 1500...it was a 4:29 mile split). Josh Linen grabbed a nice PR himself finishing with a time of 8:28 while Miles Dunbar came in right behind at 8:30. Redshirting Daniel Parker (Chico HS) had himself a tremendous showing with a brilliant finish passing about 10 dudes in the 2nd half of the race and hitting a big PR of 8:30. Clayton Francis notched a season best in the triple jump, covering 46'10". The 5th year senior out of De la Salle HS placed 5th in the meet.

Next week we head to Sac State for the Hornet Invitational the day after we host the North State Relays- a large high school meet that we put on each year.