Hello All, with the month of March upon us, the 2012 track season is now underway and nearly in full swing. The Distance 'Cats sent a small contingent up to Humboldt last weekend for a smaller meet between Chico, Humboldt, Southern Oregon and Oregon Tech. This past weekend a greater percentage of the team opened their seasons at Stanislaus' Kim Duyst Invitational. Both meets offered a glimpse to the potential that lies within the Wildcat program as the team approaches the season ahead. I'll quickly re-cap the two meets below and include some results and pictures.

Kim Duyst Invite-Stanislaus State

Women's Steeplechase: Junior Amy Schnittger the defending CCAA steeple champion would have her hands full on Saturday with Stanislaus' star transfer Courtney Anderson, the reigning JC State steeple champion while at ARC. Anderson and teammate Denali Foldager (10:46 PR from '10 season) took the pace out quick as Stanislaus athletes tend to do hitting 400m in 80 seconds (10:00 pace). Knowing this would surely be the case the very capable Chico contingent ran more reasonable paces, spotting the Warrior pair a descent cushion early. By 4 laps Schnittger had caught and passed the tiring Foldager (NCAA qualifier in '10), and now took aim at Anderson, who was still 40 meters off the front. With a string of consistent laps in the 87 second range, Amy caught Anderson inside the final lap. With a final 600m in the 2:04 range (10:20ish pace) Schnittger was just too strong for Anderson to keep up with. Amy would hit the finish with a shiny 12 second PR of 10:50, which moves her up to #3 on the All Time CSUC list and just 7 seconds shy of Jen James-Serna's school best mark. Anderson finished 4 seconds in arrears with a new 10:54 PR. Running a solid final 3 laps of her own Katie Spencer managed to catch and pass Foldager while finishing off a 11:16 PR as well. Also climbing aboard the PR wagon was rs frosh Emily Stickney (11:36). Teammate and 5th placer from '11 CCAA's Hayley Swanson notched a solid 11:54 early season time. True frosh Kelly Upson clocked a 12:24 debut for the barrier event.

Men's Steeplechase: The 'Cats Kevin Svahn, Miles Dunbar and Phil Graber would sweep the 3k barrier event, running a conservative early pace and picking it up the second half. Dunbar upped the ante with a 72 second revolution from 600m out, but Svahn covered the 5 second surge. Down the final straight Svahn switched to a quick final gear finishing in front of teammate Dunbar as the two shared 9:36 clockings. For Svahn it was a 10 second PR, and for Dunbar a solid start to the season. Following fairly close behind was teammate Phil Graber a Chico HS/Butte College alum who ran in the Wildcat uniform for the first time ever. As the 'Cats add RS Frosh Alex McGuirk (9:24 while red shirting last spring) this should be a Very formidable steeple crew this spring! (*Note: unnat/JC athletes who participated in the meet aren't listed in the results below)
 

Women's 1500m: Stephanie Consiglio ran to a very impressive PR and win in the women's 1500m. Stepping to the line with a 4:46 PR the Senior from Oceanside (El Camino HS) rolled through 400m in 72 seconds (4:30 pace) but several strides behind a pair of fast starting Stanislaus athletes. The pace settled a bit in the second lap as Steph still ran behind the frisky Warriors (76 split for Consiglio-2:29). A 74 second 3rd lap put Consiglio on the heels of Stanislaus' Ghabbour a 4:37 performer last year. A 51 second final 300m (68 pace!) by Consiglio more than sealed the deal for the win and nearly earned Consiglio an NCAA provisional mark (.04 off!). Brittany Balcom a talented Sophomore who's missed the past three track seasons with foot ailments took a step forward on Saturday with a 5:06 season opener. Expect big improvements from Balcom who's just building her base strength and will be racing into shape this spring. Also of note, but not listed below because they ran unnat were the 4:58 and 5:02 performances of red shirting true frosh Olivia Watt and Jordan Walsh. Nice start for this pair.

Men's 1500m: With perfect conditions and a very solid early season field assembled, Isaac Chavez and Josh Linen would both be pulled/pushed to PR's for the 1500m distance. Not included in the results below, but certainly adding to the depth of the field were JC Standout Cristian Serratos (Hartnell-3:54 finish time) and 2:16 marathoner Danny Tapia (3:55 pr just behind Chavez). 3:52 guy Vorderbruegge took the pace out fast hitting 1200m in 3:05 before fading a touch and finishing with a solid 3:53 mark. Isaac ran splits of 61.8, 63.6 (2:05), 63.4 (3:08) , :46.6 for the eventual 3:55 PR. Linen also ran a very evenly paced 3:57 PR finishing just a few ticks behind the 3 time All American Chavez. In the second heat 10k guy Dillon Breen looked like.. well a 10k guy in the early season, running a 4:17.

Women's 5,000m: A nice outing for a young Chico State crew. True frosh Quetta Peinado led the Wildcat charge while debuting in the Chico State jersey. Although it was just off her 17:42 PR run in our end of the season XC time trial, it was quite close to her all time best. Teammates Jessica Varela (17:53) and true frosh Tiffany Heflin (17:58) also dipped under the 18 minute barrier. For Heflin this was her maiden voyage beyond the 8 lap distance on the track, and for Varela it was a 6 second PR. Not listed below but still enjoying solid races (as red shirts) were true frosh Xiang Tak (18:19), Jackie Mansoor (18:43), Rebekah Bahra (18:52) and Ashley Simon (19:49).

Men's 5,000m: the Wildcat men looked strong in this early season 5k effort. After initial splits that purposely hovered around 15:00 pace, (4:47, 9:32) the leaders notched the final mile down well. In the final mile Wildcats Joseph Rivera, Dayne Gradone and Alfonso Cisneros occupied 3 spots in the 5 man break. Gradone made a strong surge from 1k to go, only to slip back a few spots in the final 600m. Humboldt's 30:40's 10k guy Austin Huff took control of the front and made it stick as the junior notched a 68 circuit from 600m out, with Chico's Rivera hot on his heels. A 2 stride difference at the metric 3 mile (14:11) couldn't be overcome by Rivera who finished one second behind Huff with a 14:43 PR (former PR=14:54). Alfonso Cisneros closed well for fourth in 14:47 (also a PR) while teammate Gradone hit the tape with a 10 second PR of 14:48. Debuting for the 'Cats with a PR of his own was Kyle Fox (15:01), who was followed by Eric Garibay, Jeremy Brummitt, Tommy McGuan and Geoff Hull.

Humboldt Border Battle (Oregon vs CA schools)

Men's 3,000m: The 'Cats sent a group of five freshman to the line for the 7.5 lapper in Redwood Stadium. RS Frosh Kevin Svahn led this group with a nice negative splitted 8:42 Pr (62 final lap). Tommy McGuan (8:51), Eric Garibay (8:53), Dillon Breen (8:53), Geoff Hull (9:00) followed to all run 9:00 or better. Not a bad opener for this young group.

Women's 1500m: RS Frosh Emily Stickney led almost every step of the women's 1500m before being overtaken on the final straight by SOU's Jessie Rozario.



From Coach Hanf: About 90 athletes (and coaches) from Chico State made the journey down to Turlock on Saturday March 3 for the 3rd annual Kim Duyst Invitational at Stanislaus State. 19 schools and almost 1000 athletes participated in this meet that lasted from 10:00 am to 7:30 PM! Both the Chico State women's and men's teams came out on top.

WOMEN (top three teams) Chico-229 Stanislaus-190 Sacramento-167 CCAA rivals SF State was 6th with 89 and Humboldt was 10th with 49

MEN's (top 3 teams) Chico - 270 Stanislaus-167 Sacramento-126 SF State no longer has a men's team. Humboldt was 4th at 117.

To help the long day go by, our team blessed us with a very good performance. We were firing on all cylinders this weekend...sprints, relays, hurdles, distance, jumps, vaults and throws...we had PRs and national qualifying marks lighting up the jumbo score board all day.

For the ladies: The day started off with perhaps our best mark of the meet as Amy Schnittger ran a beautiful 3K steeplechase to win a battle with Stanislaus junior Courtney Anderson (last year's JC State champion). Amy's 10:50 should earn her a trip to nationals and moves her into #3 on our all-time list. It was a 12 second PR for her. Senior Katie Spencer PR'd as well running 11:16 (10th best time in school history). Following the Steeplechase our 4 x 100 team of Amilia Santos, Erika Kalmar, Melissa Rene` and Nicole Cooper lit up the track with a time of 48.25, moving them into 8th best on our list. This removed my teammates from 1991: Jen Wissmath, Tonya Miles, Denise Buttici and Jen Haws. They were on the list for 21 years! Cooper came back to place 2nd in the 100 with a time of 12.35 (was beat out by .01) and then placed third in the 200 with a 24.80. Santos ran 12.70 and 25.81 in those races. Kalmar, a RS frosh ran 58.51 in the 400 and her 58.4 relay split helped the 4 x 400 to run a season best 3:56. Cooper had the fastest split (58.1).

Senior Stephanie Consiglio sliced 10 seconds off her PR in the 1500 to win. Her time of 4:36.04 was .04 from a national qualifying mark! It also lands her a spot on the all-time list and removes another of my teammates (Dana Bjornson) from it. While it was a good day for our current 'Cats it was a rough one for the '91-'92 era. More on that later... Aimee Rodgers remained undefeated this year in the 100H lowering her season best time to 14.78. She placed 2nd in the 400H with a time of 64.88. Freshman Tori Mason, who is redshirting, placed 2nd with a time of 15.55. True freshman Quetta Peinado led a slew of Cats in the 5K with a 17:46 time to place 3rd. Redshirt frosh Jessie Varela came in at 17:53 and true frosh Tiffany Heflin broke 18 minutes (17:58). Rookie pole vaulter Kelly Gundert (has not vaulted since 2007) first equaled her HS PR of 10'6" and then raised it to 11"0". Bridget McClarrinon had the top throw for the ladies, heaving the javelin 128'10" to win and move into 6th best on our all-time charts and removing Mary Grace Eala from the list (she enjoyed 11 years on it). Brooke Shepard just missed the 40' mark in the shot, putting it 39'11 1/2". Candyce Sannadan had the top throws in the hammer (143') and Discus (127').

      


For the lads: Michael Souza had the top mark of the day, clearing 6'11" to earn a spot at the national championships! By clearing 6'9" he tied yours truly for 10th on the all-time list, but quickly removed me on his first effort at 6'11". There was nothing but air between the bar and him as he easily sailed over the PR height. It was a nice stay for 20 years for me but it's time to say good bye :-), unless I decide to make it an all-time top 11 list!

Eric "Bobo" Wright also hit an NCAA mark by throwing 182'11" in the hammer, with was the top throw in the competition. Andrew Kokinakes got the men's team yet another NCAA mark when he won the 400m hurdles with a time of 53.80. He also anchored a riveting mile relay and passed 4 runners on the final stretch to lead his team to a victory in a time of 3:20 and split 48.9. Not bad for having two of the runners compete in the decathlon the previous two days. John Brunk led off with a 50.5 and Michael Beeman ran a 49.8 split. Fellow hurdler Hakeem Dyson won the 110 HH in a time of 14.95. An alumni spotting also took place in the hurdles when Micah Smith hopped in the race and ran 16.43. Micah now qualifies for the age 35 and up category, which makes his performance even more impressive!! Chris Kaiakapu was given credit for a 193'6" javelin throw but he denies throwing that far, saying it was "only" 182'. I have a call in to Stanislaus to verify the records and will send out a later update on that... The day was started impressively with freshman Kevin Svahn wining the steeplechase in a time of 9:36.8 while teammates Miles Dunbar (9:36.9) and Phil Graber (9:41) completed the 1-2-3 sweep.

Next up for our team is the Aggie Invite at UC Davis this weekend. Until next time, Coach O