How quickly time flies, as it seems like just a few weeks ago that I was updating our supporters on the XC Championship run, and now we've just completed our second track meet of the 2013 season. I'm pleased to report that the Distance 'Cats are off to a solid start to the 2013 season, having turned in promising early season results at both the Kim Duyst (Stanislaus) and Aggie (Davis) Invitationals. I'll do my best below to quickly update you all on the action of the past two weekends, while also providing links to results of each competition.

The Aggie meet was an interesting track meet to say the least. We had a little of everything.. and a LOT of North Wind (unfortunately). Despite having our tents completely blown from our camp area, and dust and leaves lodged in every imaginable area of our team camp area, we made the most of some dreary conditions. One of the interesting twists of the day was the crazy officiating blunders that included a head meet official walking directly in front of the men's steeple field as they approached the first water barrier of the race. Another official (a starter) allowed the same athlete (the eventual champion) to false start Twice in the men's 3k. After the first false start, the official climbed down from his ladder and without looking to his left crossed directly in front of a Long Jump competitor who leveled the unknowing official. In the same 3k the lap counter person by mid race had messed up the count and was telling athletes that they had 1 too many laps remaining. This led to the first four finishers crossing the finish to the sound of a bell ringing. None of these athletes (3 from Chico) would end up with finish times.. It was that kind of day ;v) OK on to the action.

Men's 3000m:
(B Heat) After modest early splits (4:50 at 1600) Rogan Meza took control in the final 400m to record his first collegiate victory with a negative splitted 8:49 effort. Red Shirting frosh Nick Grubiss would finish second with a PR 8:51, with Kevin Svahn (8:53), Geoff Hull (8:56) and Tommy McGuan (8:59) close behind.

(A Heat) It would take a full page of writing to completely describe the debacle that became of the men's 3,000m and some has already been described previously, so I'll cut from the false starts, the blundering starting official, and will only touch over the official working the finish who had a tough time figuring out a 7.5 lap race.

With no pace setters and the winds still blowing pretty well, the early pace became a game of patience for a group that had started the day hoping for Pr's for the 3k distance. After 3 laps in the 70 second range Anthony Costales swung wide and hammered out an aggressive 65-66 second revolution. Catching the field by surprise the pack was content to "dawdle" in the 69/70 second pace range while Costales built the better part of a 50m lead. With 1k remaining Costales started to struggle a bit, and at the same time he was being told by the finish staff that he had 1 more lap remaining than he actually did. By the actual 600m remaining point Costales was mentally and physically fried and Santa Clara's sub 24 min 8k guy Rajpaul Pannu (who's red shirting) caught the tiring Chico runner.

With 400m remaining Pannu carried a 5ish second lead over the field, which was now being lead by Chico frosh Geoff Bogan who was followed closely by teammates Dayne Gradone and Phil Graber. The trio closed the final lap in the 61 second range but just missed the tiring Pannu who reached the line as the officials were sounding the (lap to go) bell. . because of the officiating blunder the timing officials weren't prepared to stop the clock for the first 4 finishers. I would guess from my vantage of from the times that we had for them.. that Pannu finished in the 8:30 range, with Gradone, Graber and Bogan all finishing between 8:32 and 8:33. Adrian Sherrod would finish next with an 8:36, Dan Parker-8:38 and Alex McGuirk (8:40). Although it wasn't pretty, the guys had gained some much needed racing experience.

Women’s 3,000m:
(B Heat) Rebekah Bahra and Jackie Mansoor took some nice steps forward this week after rough 5k outings in Turlock last week. Bahra would finish 2nd overall in 10:38, while Mansoor ran a solid 10:47 for the 7.5 lapper. Red shirting teammate Vivien Cherrette a frosh from Mira Costa HS would finish 4th overall in 10:43.

(A Heat) The Chico women would produce a very solid team showing in the 3k on this day. With the early pace hovering in the low to mid 80's the large lead pack that consisted almost entirely of Chico and similarly outfitted (Maroon Unis) Santa Clara. After the pack hit the 1600 in a modest 5:35 Jonah Weeks decided to notch the pace down a bit. Jonah's 81 fifth lap left the large chase pack behind by a few strides with Davis' Nina Anderson now in tow. An 83 lap from a kilometer out invited the pack back into the lead group and now any of 7-8 athletes looked capable of the win.

Thankfully most of those in contention were in Chico kits. Unfortunately, Davis' Anderson grabbed the lead from 300m out and never quite relinquished it. Chico's XC All American Sara Mikesell pressed on the accelerator in the final 100m and was making up ground, but had miss-timed her surge by just a stride or two as she would miss the Davis standout by just .16 seconds. 7 more 'Cats would flood across the line in the following 9 seconds as the 'Cats would record a great team outing in this one. Perhaps the best PR of the bunch was that of Hillary LaBelle who clocked an impressive 10:20. The senior clocked an 11:01 in the same race a year ago and is definitely the most improved part of our women's distance crew so far this spring.

Other Wildcats in action on Saturday....

Women's 2k steeple: Amy Schnittger the 2 time defending CCAA Steeple Champion opened up her 2013 season with a 2k steeple effort on Saturday. Amy struggled a bit early with the pacing of the windy 2k event, but ironed things out well finishing with a pair of 85 second laps over the barriers. Her 7:10 mark was good for 3rd overall.

Women's 800m: RS Frosh Olivia Watt would record another impressive PR this week with her 2:17.07 4th place run. Just her second time under the 2:20 mark ever, Watt looked strong running 66/70 splits on a windy day!

Men's 1500m: Despite having a talented field assembled no one would dip under the 4 minute mark, mostly due to Mother Nature's gift from the North that was by this point in the meet, wreaking havoc on the multi lap runs. Chico's Anthony Palermini (coming off a week layoff due to injury) looked strong until 250m remaining, when he appeared to hit an invisible wall. Knowing his strength is much better than Saturday, I'd expect that Tony will bounce back nicely from the 4:07 mark he posted on Saturday as he re-gains his race sharpness.

Next up: While a section of the team heads to Sac State this weekend for the Hornet Invite the distance crew will take the week off racing to focus on training. Wildcat Invitational- Saturday March 23 will mark our return to racing, with a lot of 1500's planned from this group, as they prep for SF Invite and Stanford competitions the following week. The Wildcat Invite will also mark the return of Isaac Chavez, and Ayla Granados, along with several others to competition. We hope to see you at the Chico State University Stadium in 12 days!

Coach Hanf reports from Davis:
1993 NCAA decathlon champion Dave Burton's school record in the 110HH has been broken. He ran 14.55 in 1992. That was the same year that Hakeem Dyson was born. 21 years later Hakeem Dyson was representing Chico State as a sophomore, and ran 14.50 at the Woody Wilson track in Davis, CA. Dave was in Chico in February and met Hakeem. A picture of those two has been attached. Dave competed in the alumni pentathlon the next day and ended up winning the 5-event competition, edging out current assistant coach Brian Beeman by 12 points. Then on March 2-3 he traveled to Kinosha, Wisconsin to compete in the indoor Master's nationals, where he won his age group pentathlon, setting a new American record. Sorry you lost your hurdles record Dave but congrats on gaining a new record and another national championship!

Back to the 2013 Wildcats...the team was on fire in the second meet of the year. The hurdles crew was exceptional with PRs-a-plenty! Aimee Rodgers placed 2nd in the 100H (14.22) and won the 400H (62.48) and earned NCAA provisional marks for both. Freshman Tori Mason (Sac HS) entered our record books by running the 9th fastest 400h hurdle time in school history (64.53). Sara Taylor's 65.33 from 1999 is removed from the top 10 list after being there for nearly 14 years. Mason also ran 15.12 in the 100 hurdles. JC transfer Taylor Graves (DVC) was neck and neck with Tori and finished with a PR time of 15.26. Heptathlete Robin Hannah was our fourth fastest hurdler at 15.37!

In addition to Hakeem's personal record, decathletes Adam Nikssarian (15.37) and John Brunk (15.87) each ran life time bests in the hurdles! Brunk, who is redshirting this year, is focusing on improving his hurdles more than anything, and Saturday was a positive step in the right direction. Another school record that was set on Saturday was in a "demo" race distance...the 2,000m Steeplechase. Our 3K Steeple record holder Amy Schnittger opened her season by placing 3rd in the race and by virtue of being the first to run that distance also set a new benchmark. (Editor's note: All sprint & hurdle times run by Chico State athletes were wind aided)

Dayne Gradone (the cousin of our men's steeplechase record holder Beau Rogers) was 2nd in the open 3K in a time of 8:32 and Geoff Bogan was in 4th at 8:33. Teammate Phil Graber, who is redhirting, was sandwiched right between those two. Our ladies placed 3 in the top 4 and 8 in the top 10 in the 3K. XC All-American Sara Mikesell was the top Cat in a time of 10:18.59.

We had some nice early season 100 meter dash efforts as well. Amilia Santos ran her fastest season opening time in her career with a 12.52 to place 6th. Right behind her was freshman Gabrielle Finley-Vaquera (Pleasant Valley HS) in 12.59. Josiah Damaris Greer was our top male century runner and nearly eclipsed the 11s barrier (11.03). Several field event PRs were set as well...Candyce Sannadan placed third in the discus with a throw of 134'1". Kasey Barnett tied her pole vault PR of 11'0" (she actually cleared 11'10" at our intra-squad meet a few weeks back but that is not official). She also had productive days in the LJ (17'2), TJ (35') and anchored the 4 x 100. Decathlete Teddy Elsenbaumer hit 38' in the shot put, pole vaulted 14'0" and then led off the 4 x 400 with a 50.3 split. JP Smith (50.9) was second, Andrew Kokinakes (49.3) was third and the team was anchored by Nick Sloggy 49.5).

Our distance crew will take a weekend off of racing before they hit the Stanford/SF State Distance Carnival...their first big test of the year. The rest of our crew will down size onto one bus and head to CSU Sacramento this Saturday for the Hornet Invitational. Hope to see some you you there. John Poggi came to check out the Cats in action in Turlock last week, as was professor George Wright. Lane Polete was at the Woody Wilson track this weekend with his wife Kami and his two boys Zach and Ryan. The weather forecast is mid 70s. Would be great to see some of you there! I'm sure we'll see many of you alumni here this Friday for the John Lanzavecchia North State Relays. Coach O