Championship season is what athletes train for, and it's this time of the season that brings drama, excitement and heartbreak. This year's CCAA Championships (held in S.F., CA) certainly brought plenty of each, as the men's and women's track squads fought valiantly in an attempt to win their 12th and 6th straight conference crowns. For the women this pursuit would end with a positive outcome and another CCAA banner. The men on the other hand lost a 213-216 barn burner to a determined UCSD squad.

The men's title came down to the pole vault competition, which had outlasted the usual concluding event, the 4 X 4 relay. UCSD's final competitor in the event was up against his final attempt at a PR height, and if he cleared it, the Tritons would secure the title, and if he missed the 'Cats would take home their 12th title in a row. With no vaulters left in the competition the Chico men had no control over their destiny. The UCSD vaulter sprinted down the runway and rode the pole up to the perched bar. His legs cleared well, but as his center of gravity started it's downward fall, his hips and chest caught the bar, flexing it in the middle. As he continued his fall through the air, the bar literally bounced several times on the 2 inch pins that hold it precariously above the pit below. Despite bouncing several times the bar never did fall, and a huge cheer was produced by the Triton team, and with that the 'Cats valiant efforts of the finals day were dashed, and a long streak was broken. Although this was a tough ending for the Chico men's title hopes, both squads had so much to be thankful for. Huge results were produced by both teams, and I can honestly say that I've never felt so proud of a "losing" effort than I was leaving the stadium on Saturday.

The Distance 'Cats had another standout weekend, as Wildcat runners would stand atop the CCAA podium at the conclusion of 7 of the 10 distance running events. Two Chico athletes named "Alex" combined for 4 of these titles themselves as McGuirk and Burkhart would both notch VERY challenging steeple/5k doubles. Burkhart's might have been the most impressive of the day as she even broke the meet record in the steeplechase, while running away from NCAA auto qualifier and pre-race favorite Kori Gilley of Humboldt. Now buckle your seatbelts and get ready for one heck of a ride as I'll do my best to take you through the ups & downs of one heck of a competition.

  Friday May 1, 2015: 10k Finals and 8/15 prelims

8/15 prelims: The 'Cats safely moved all distance runners through to finals, with the exception of Lora James in the 800m. Attempting to double back after her 1500 prelim Lora looked a bit tired and missed advancing to the final. Thankfully she would still have the 15 final to look forward to on Saturday. One notable advancement on Friday was that of Steepler Barron Maizland, who was entered in the men's 800m. Despite training in our distance group all year Barron notched a 1:55 2nd place heat run, guaranteeing at least a point the next day in the 8 man final. He would contest this after running the steeplechase of course.

Women's 10,000m final: The Wildcats would send three to the line in the women's 10k on Friday evening. Sadie Gastelum a sophomore who'd run 36:34 earlier in the season at the SF Distance Carnival, Bekah Bahra who'd scored in the event a year ago, but has spent the entire season on the shelf with injury, and true frosh Danielle Oden who had run a 38:59 in her early season debut. Sadie would be the 'Cats best chance at scoring team points, while Bekah and Danielle were hoping to keep the 8th place runner within striking distance, in hopes of potentially scoring. The top two seeds in the race were defending champ Paige Hughes of UCSD (17:25/37:03 Pr's), and Pomona's Regina Lopez (17:24/36:04 pr's). From my calculations Sadie was a solid #3 seed and so the goal from the gun would be for Sadie to stick with this pair for as long as she could. making them run away from her.

Sadie, prepared to endure some quick early laps, made her way on the heels of this pair as they immediately separated themselves from the field. By 1600 the trio ran alone at the front, with Humboldt's 36:40's gal Emma Lundberg trailing by herself some 30m back. This would be the story of most of the race as Hughes seemed content to lead the trio lap after lap at an honest tempo. The leaders hit 5k at 18:06 and Sadie looked surprisingly relaxed and controlled despite being on huge PR pace. The second half of the race played out much like the first had, with Hughes hammering 86-87 laps, one after another, with neither Lopez or Gastelum looking too distressed although Humboldt's Lundberg was and had fallen way back. So makeup of the podium was certainly determined by the 8k mark. The obvious question now was who would stand above which number on the awards steps?

Inside the final 800m Lopez made a move to the front, but both Hughes and Gastelum countered and low 80's penultimate lap brought no gaps, and just a brief re-order of leaders. With 400m remaining Hughes would take the front again and the junior from UCSD would notch the pace down another step. Lopez and Gastelum matched the pace as the Triton sprinted down the backstretch in front of the screaming team camps. With 200m remaining Hughes separated from Lopez and Gastelum sprung around the cracked Pomona runner. It was now a sprint down the final straight in an attempt to catch the '14 Champ Hughes. Although the catch was never made Sadie's 74 second final lap secured a second place finish and a 30 second PR. Her 36:04 finish time also makes her the 7th fastest 10k runner in the school's history. Her final 5k had been covered in an impressive 17:58 (only 12 seconds shy of her PR for that distance!). Bahra and Oden would finish 9th and 15th respectively just missing out on the scoring action.

Men's 10,000m final: On paper the 10k looked like a great opportunity for the 'Cats to claim it's usual points haul over the rest of the CCAA, but in reality the 2015 season hadn't gone very well for any of our three competitors. Senior Johnny Sanchez a 30:14 10k guy, has struggled on the oval this spring after claiming his 3rd All American honor in the fall. Teammate Dillon Breen had finished 4th in the CCAA final a year ago, and was All West region in XC this fall, but had several setbacks this spring. Senior Aaron Thomas has proven to be an inconsistent racer during his final campaign as a Wildcat, so yours truly took a very deep breath as the Chico guys lined up for the 25 lap final.

As is usually the case at the championships, the early pace was painfully slow. Many of the favorites were doubling back in the 5k the next afternoon, so there was no sense of urgency in making a fast pace happen from the front. Given our less than stellar season coming into the race, I didn't feel overly confident in our chances of making the race happen from the front, so the Chico guys filed in for some time before helping the pace along a bit in the later going. As the race approached the half-way point the pace was barely under a 5:20 mile clip, so Chico's Dillon Breen and Stanislaus' Alex Villaescusa began to toss in 75-76 second revolutions that were at least closer to race rhythm. This mild form of racing continued for another mile, before San Diego's 14:30 5k guy Tareq Alwafai seized the lead, and dropped a sub 70 second revolution. The lead pack splintered immediately and small chase packs emerged behind Alwafai teammate Tanner Collins (a 14:28 5k guy) and Pomona's 14:19 5k runner Mark Huizar. It should be noted that the eventual top-3 finishers were all running their first 10k's ever on the track.

The Chico guys fought hard, but only Aaron Thomas was able to remain in scoring position after the pace-drop occurred. Sanchez and Breen fell outside of the top-10 thus ending their hopes of scoring. While Pomona's Huizar would run to his first CCAA title (he finished 2nd in the XC Championships behind Alex McGuirk this past fall) UCSD gathered valuable team points w/ the 2-3 finishes of Alwafai and Collins. Aaron Thomas would be the lone Chico scorer holding on to a 6th place finish.

Post 10k Setback: After the 10k guys cooled down we drove to the local mall to grab some food at the food court. Despite leaving the van unattended for a short 40 minute span we returned to a shattered window and a van that had been ransacked by thieves. Aaron Mora lost a backpack w/ his laptop, while many others lost uniforms, spikes, and other items. Yours truly lost two bags full of items including my camera bag w/ my prized photo machine. As we finally went to bed well beyond the midnight hour that night, it was certain that Saturday would be a much better day than Friday ended up being.

Saturday Finals:
Women's Steeplechase: After the rough evening before, the women's steeplechase was just what this coach needed to get back into the CCAA groove. True frosh Alex Burkhart has enjoyed an amazing first year for the 'Cats. In her three previous attempts at the distance Burkhart would run times of 10:55, 10:32, and 10:27. She would now face Humboldt's star athlete Kori Gilley (CCAA XC Champ) who has NCAA Automatic qualifying marks in both the steeplechase AND 1500m events. Gilley's steeple PR (10:24) was superior to Burkhart's 10:27 and her 1500 pr (4:23) is some 13 seconds faster than Alex'. Given that Gilley was double-entered in the 800, and that she has superior speed to Alex, a plan was hatched to make the race honest from the front, pressuring Gilley to stay with Alex If she could.

Before going too far into the race for the title, teammate McCall Habermehl would also be racing and had her own challenges to battle. Although McCall had run the CCAA's 3rd fastest steeple of the year (10:49) at the Beach Invite 2 weeks previous, she had spent much of the week following, sick and unable to train effectively. In fact Habermehl was only able to manage one modest workout in the two week window between her Beach Invite run and CCAA's. The goal for McCall would be to keep Stanislaus' big group of NCAA Provisional qualifiers within her sites early, and hopefully put them behind her during the final kilometer of the race.

It's not often that plans come together exactly how you'd hoped, but the women's steeple couldn't have unfolded more perfectly on this day. Alex Burkhart blazed to an opening 76 split through 400m, challenging Gilley to go with her. Credit the Humboldt standout for not following too closely on Burkhart's heels, but she still went out in 78 seconds in trying not to lose contact. As Burkhart continued to keep the early pace honest Gilley looked relatively controlled but still unable to bridge the 20m gap that separated the two at the front. Nearing the 2k point of the race Gilley began to show signs of fatigue as hurdle form began to slip and the 20m gap had turned into 30m. Burkhart herself was struggling from the quick early pace, but just as she has all season, the frosh ran with complete poise, staying focused on the task at hand. With 400m remaining Burkhart just had to stay on her feet to earn her first CCAA title. She would do this handily running to an eventual 10:30 clocking for the win. Her mark was a new CCAA Championship meet record, and a full 14 seconds faster than Gilley's runner-up effort.

While Burkhart ran the wheels off Gilley at the front, McCall Habermehl was grinding her way to another impressive outing as well. Never looking 100% on her game McCall still managed to catch the Stanislaus group with 3 laps remaining. With each lap, she would put 1-2 behind her and a strong closing 400m sealed a podium finish for the deserving sophomore from Woodcreek HS in Roseville, CA. Her eventual 10:54 finish time was her second fastest ever and also her second consecutive sub 11 min outing. The 1,3 finish by the Wildcat women was a nice momentum builder for the women's team title pursuit.

Men's Steeplechase: The 'Cats had a great scoring opportunity in the men's steeplechase as Alex McGuirk was the two time defending champion, and teammate Barron Maizland, who had finished 2nd behind Alex in the '14 championship race, had posted the top conference mark coming into the championship. Both have excellent closing speed, and each had an event to run after the steeple, so there was no need to force anything from the front in the early going. Teammates Omar Pulido and Brandon Taylor also brought scoring potential to the line, but they would have their work cut out for them as no less than 7 of the entrants in this event had NCAA provisional marks to their credit.

CSLA's Gonzalo (9:08 pr) made things interesting from the start with his 66ish first lap split. The pack knew the pace was unsustainable, but they also didn't want to give the LA athlete a huge cushion at the front. As the race developed a large number of men rolled through 4 laps at a very impressive pace. McGuirk assumed the lead for good with 1200m remaining, running fast enough to stay out front, but not too fast to take much more out of his legs. Maizland followed the pre-race plan perfectly, timing his surge into second place with 600m remaining.

Alex, with 200m remaining, ran controlled 30 meters out ahead of Maizland, who had managed to open a several meter gap on a small chase pack. Maizland, after coming out of the final water jump, was unaware of the gathering momentum of Pomona's William Eibner who obviously had plans of catching and passing Maizland. Barron easily cleared the final barrier and just as he became aware that Eibner was coming, the young Pomona runner slammed into the final barrier and fell to the track. Barron continued down the final straight and through the line, soon to high-five three time champ McGuirk. While neither Pulido nor Taylor enjoyed their best days, they battled well enough to earn their way into scoring spots by the finish.

Women's 1500m: A year ago Sophomore Olivia Watt finished 4th in the CCAA 1500m final arguably behind the top 3 metric milers in DII on the year. This year Watt had a shiny 4:23 PR of her own coming into the meet, and had plans of creating a pace that her competitors would eventually not be able to handle. Teammate Lora James had missed making the 800 final the previous afternoon, but took aim at a hoped top- 5 finish in the 15 on Saturday.

From the start Watt would claim the lead and pulled the field through a first lap of 72 seconds. As she began a second revolution at the same rate, the pack split and only Pomona's Huerta (4:32 Pr) and Hannah Bell a 4:33 runner from Monterey Bay would follow. 800m was reached in 2:25 (73 second lap) and Watt looked full of run. The next 300m was run in 53 seconds and now the relentless pace of Watt had taken it's toll as Huerta and Bell allowed a gap to form between themselves and the Chico runner. A final revolution of 70 seconds gave Olivia her first CCAA title, in an impressive 4:29 clocking. Huerta would win the sprint with Bell for the silver medal, and Lora James would finish strong to claim 6th overall.

Men's 1500m: On paper the Chico men looked to have a great scoring opportunity in the 1500, but Pomona's 3:51 true frosh and several others with seed times under the 3:55 threshold, would certainly make things interesting. It was agreed that our chances would be best if the pace from the front was at least somewhat honest. Knowing that the field would most likely key off our runners, since their PR's ranked at the top, the Chico men took the early pace from the gun. Germay was the first to grab the lead, doing a wonderful job of steering the pack through a 62 second first revolution. Falco DiGiallonardo was supposed to take lap 2, but unfortunately had become trapped on the rail behind his teammate. Pre race favorite Kyle Medina would take the fore earlier than we'd hoped, but looking comfortable nonetheless and kept the pace in the 63 range for the second lap. All of the top seeds were still present with 700m remaining, but stress was certainly on the faces of more than a few, including Chico's Tesfai who'd won the event in 2014.

With 400m remaining Medina ran in the lead with teammate DiGiallonardo on his shoulder. Pomona's Koryta looked well in third position, and appeared antsy to try to pass the Chico pair. Tesfai ran in 7th position and appeared on the ropes, as his face and body language showed the stress of a championship race environment. As the pack ran down the backstretch Korta made his move by Falco, but thankfully Medina appeared prepared, and maintained the cushion from the front. With 1:50 800m speed in his arsenal Medina ran down the final straight claiming his first CCAA title with relative ease. Falco held on for valuable third place points despite not looking overly sharp throughout the race.. and Germay ran to a similar effort placing 4th with a 3:56 mark. With 3 of the top-4 finishers overall, a good step forward was taken for the men's title hopes.



Women's 800m: The 'Cats had the top 2 seeds in this race on paper, but Olivia Watt would be doubling back from a tough 1500m final where she led every step of the race. Thankfully Stanislaus' Kyrah Vaughn took the front initially pulling the field through 400m in a fair 65 second split. Senior Bailey Henshaw (the top seed coming in) and Olivia Watt were placed perfectly behind Vaughn, so when the Stanislaus athlete began to slow with 300m remaining the Chico pair assumed the lead for good. Henshaw took the front with Watt matching her stride down the backstretch.

Two years ago in the CCAA 800m prelim then-frosh Olivia Watt was squeezed out of the final in big part due to the tactics of two Stanislaus athletes who boxed her purposely down the final straight, while the Chico runner was literally unable to move around the two. Now two years later a fresh Hundal (one of the two Stanislaus athletes previously mentioned) would chase the doubled Watt and teammate Henshaw down the final straight in the CCAA final, but without the legs to catch them. Watt would enjoy placing second behind her teammate as much as she had in winning the 1500 earlier in the day.

Men's 800m: With Stanislaus' 1:48.0 Sophomore fresh for the 800m final, the race here was certainly for second place. Stanislaus also had two more fresh competitors toeing the line, while most other favorites including Chico's Kyle Medina (1500) and Barron Maizland (steeple) had raced already on the day.

Predictably Alvarado seized the early lead, but he seemed to hold a pace that his teammates could handle easily, and they tucked in behind him through a very modest 56 second first revolution. Medina couldn't have placed himself in worse position given the tactical early pace, as he trailed the entire field hitting the bell in 57 seconds. Maizland looked strong considering the 9:06 steeple that was in his legs. While the Stanislaus trio pressed down the backstretch, not a lot of movement was happening in the field. With Alvarado leading the way Stanislaus would take the 1,2,3 sweep. Medina would pass three athletes including Maizland down the final straight but would fall short of our hoped Top-3 goal going into the race. Maizland would record a surprising 1:54 PR while scoring a 6th place finish.

Women's 5,000m:
The decision to run true frosh Alex Burkhart in the 5k wasn't even a done deal until yours truly asked her some 45min after winning the steeple if she would even want to run the second race. Having fought through a week of tendon inflammation that cost her some training and created plenty of pre meet stress Alex was still excited to race the 5k in hopes of adding to the team's point total. Junior Quetta Peinado had the fastest seed time in the field, but she too had a very rough lead-in to CCAA's this year. After running the school's 9th fastest 10k ever two weeks ago at Mt Sac, Peinado was unable to run for over a week, due to a tendon flare-up in her foot caused by the race. With only 4 days of real running behind her in the past 2 weeks, we hoped that Quetta would be good to go for Saturday's 5k. Our other top seed Sadie Gastelum (17:46 PR) had run a huge lifetime best in the 10k the night before, so the Chico crew was certainly less than 100 percent going in, but ready to fight for every point.

The early pace was plenty fast, with 35 entrants in the field, as all of the favorites wanted to make sure that they were positioned close enough to the front to move as needed. By 1600 our three top seeds were well placed in the lead pack and RS frosh Hannah Dorman also looked good running just outside the Top-10. During the second mile UCSD's 10k champ Paige Hughes took control of the pace keeping things relatively honest given all of the tired legs in the field, including her own. All of the favorites were still attached including the top-3 'Cats, as 3200m was reached around 11:12. For whatever reason Alex Burkhart felt as though it was her turn to take the front, and the frosh took the lead. Although the lap splits were no faster, they were honest enough to continue to string out the pack behind her. Teammate Peinado was among those who fell from this elite group but not Gastelum who looked great in 6th position.

UCSD's Corrine Hinkle, the only one in the lead pack running on fresh legs, grabbed the lead early in the final lap. Burkhart made a quick decision to cover Hinkle's move and now it was a two woman race for the 5k title. Burkhart, with a half lap remaining, seized the opportunity and raced around Hinkle. With a final 200m that had to be in the 32-33 range, Burkhart would take her 2nd conference title in 2 opportunities. Her final time (17:20) was a 19 second PR and an NCAA provisional qualifier. It's also the fastest 5k by a true frosh in our school's history!

Just as she had the night before, Sadie Gastelum sprung to life over the final lap, building momentum with each stride and pulling into 3rd place with 50meters remaining. Just as it looked as though the 'Cats would fit two onto the 3 person podium Pomona's Regina Lopez (Sadie's kicking victim the evening before in the 10k) found a final gear and squeezed by Sadie at the line. No less than 5 Hundredths of a second separated the two at the finish, but Sadie had run an incredible 5k, that included a 17:29 PR! (her previous best was 17:46). Despite running at less than 100 percent Quetta Peinado held on valiantly for 7th, and teammate Dorman would follow with a commendable 11th place 17:56 effort.

Men's 5,000m: The Wildcat men have quite a streak going in the men's CCAA 5k. In 2002 then Sophomore Tyler Graff led a Chico 1,2,3 sweep over then-rivals UC Davis (who had the top 3 pre-race seeds) and each year since, a Chico runner has stood atop the podium at the conclusion of every CCAA 5k. Entering Saturday's final the streak stood at 13 straight years. Top seeds from Chico would include Nick Grubiss (14:23 PR) and Aaron Mora (14:33 PR) who were both racing for the first time on the weekend. Senior Alex McGuirk (14:10 pr) had the best time among the field, but had run a 9:03 steeple just 3 hours previous. Cal Poly Pomona countered with a very similar line-up with a fresh Francisco Gomez (14:23 PR) and Grant Stromberg (14:33) leading the way. Newly minted CCAA 10k champ and 14:19 5k guy Mark Huizar would surely be a factor as well, especially since the 10k was run mostly around his tempo pace the evening before.

Several weeks previous to the meet, yours truly reached out to Tyler Graff, currently a resident of San Francisco, to see if he might be interested in coming out and supporting his Wildcats. When he accepted the invitation I followed with a request to see if he might want to say a few words to the Chico men before their race, to give them a bit more momentum to back up their efforts. Graff accepted the invitation, and now things were in place. As I finished my usual pre-race talk w/ the 5k guys just minutes before they were to begin their warm up I introduced Tyler. He briefly described upsetting the Davis boys back in '02 and the things it took to pull this off. He then talked about his pride in the program and the momentum that our athletes had built through the years. There is no doubt that the Chico men were pumped as they stepped to the line on Saturday.

Sensing that Pomona might want a modest early pace to help Huizar's chances at potentially winning the race Johnny Sanchez was plugged in to rev up the early pace in an effort to keep things relatively honest from the start. Johnny's 65 first revolution wasn't exactly how we'd drawn it up, but in hindsight it was quite effective. Predictably the pace settled a bit as Johnny found the 70 second rhythm that we'd hoped for, and the pack went through 1600 in 4:40ish. Sanchez made 1-2 more laps before stepping off the track with his work completed. Most of the favorites would take turns at the front over the next 4 laps with no one willing to put in a full race effort intensity, thus the group hit 3200 in 9:28 off a slowing pace. Inside the final 1600m the pace started to heat up again as Nick Grubiss and Alex McGuirk dropped a series of sub 70 second revolutions. The Pomona boys answered and now the lead pack resembled a dual meet between Chico and Pomona (with the lone exception being UCSD's Tariq Alwafai).

With 600m remaining the pace at the front really heated up with Alex McGuirk dropping the pace even more. Gomez fell off, as did Stromberg, and Chico's Mora. Huizar was the lone Pomona runner who was able to counter the most recent injection of pace from the front, and Grubiss attached himself to the Pomona runner's heels. McGuirk, with 300m to go, shifted again and put valuable steps between himself and Huizar, just as he had in winning the CCAA XC title this fall. Sensing that Huizar was falling off the pace Grubiss swung wide and moved into second for good. Greeted at the final turn by a boisterous "CCCCCHHHHIIIICCCCCOOOOOO" Chant McGuirk and Grubiss would race down the final straight to a 1-2 victory. Pomona's three guys were all finishing strong, but there was no chance of their catching the Chico pair ahead. Coming off the final turn Aaron Mora, who'd hit 12 laps in 6th position, found a huge gear and took a chance on a podium finish by putting the head down an tossing all cards on the table. Gomez was is first victim surging by him going round the final turn, and then with a huge amount of momentum on his side Mora split between Stromberg and Huizar just before the line to come way with the final podium spot by the slimmest of margins. Mora had edged Huizar by a mere .19 seconds. Standing at the top of the turn and seeing Tyler Graff jumping up and down as Mora sealed the 1,2,3 finish, was a memory forever etched in this coaches' memory banks. What a great race this was.

A wrap: What a weekend it was. So many great races and storylines. The highs of the women's team winning their 6th straight CCAA crown, and the lows of the men losing their first CCAA title in 12 years. Thankfully the highs certainly exceeded the lows and the Chico athletes have a lot to be proud of as they represented their school and programs amazingly well on the championship stage.

Up next will be the West Coast Last Chance meet this Saturday, where a handful of distance runners will take another shot at their events in search of PR's and in a few cases marks that will hopefully make the NCAA meet in 2 weeks. A few athletes who are very close to making the meet, but will probably need to improve their marks are: McCall Habermehl (10:49 steeple PR Currently ranked #24), Falco DiGiallonardo (3:49.47 1500 PR, Currently ranked #23 in NCAA), and Nick Grubiss (14:23 5k PR, Currently ranked #20 in NCAA). Keep your fingers crossed for these three as they take a crack at their distances one last time this weekend in hopes of making the big dance.

Coach Hanf's take on the meet:

All year long, every year, our track team trains for two weekends in May...the CCAA and the NCAA championships. 1 of those big targets has now been met. The road to San Francisco was paved with a very fruitful season including a plentiful crop of automatic and provisional NCAA marks, school records, all-time top 10 performances and personal records galore. It was also sprinkled with some hardships, but in the end a committed and united Chico track team arrived to the 2015 championships with a spirited mission. The goal was to bring home two more banners to add to the large collection back at the "oval office". While "only" one banner came home the team rose up strong to the pressures and put on a display of courage, will and passion. The performance by our Track Cats was brilliant!! It gives us great pride to say that our Lady Track Cats have won a 6th consecutive team title! Before our streak begun San Diego had won 5 straight. UCSD was determined to end the streak at 5 and bring the banner back south. The Wildcats were determined to out-score everyone again. And that they did! They crushed 'em!

While it was a crushing win by the ladies, it was also a crushing blow for the guys. The consecutive streak was stopped at 11. The Yin and the Yang for our "Ohana": The beauty of the program is that we all win TOGETHER and we all lose TOGETHER. We all shared the thrill of victory; the guys celebrated the women's win. We all shared the agony of defeat. The ladies clearly were hurting with the guys. Together we stood, strong and proud to the end. Together we look to a bright future, where we once again bring home two banners. Both teams scored 213 points (the ladies actually had 213.5). UC San Diego's men scored 216. Their ladies scored 138.5 to place 3rd. The CP Pomona ladies were 2nd with 142. The Pomona men were third with 153.

Leading the way for our championship ladies team were Ashley Jones, Alex Burkhart and Olivia Watt, scoring 58 points between them, not including the points that Jones and Watt earned in relays. Jones, a senior, was voted the CCAA track athlete of the year after winning the 100 (11.96...tied 6th AT with Nicole Cooper) AND won the 200 (24.84). Burkhart, a true freshman, pulled off a stunning double win in the Steeplechase (10:30...a Championships record!) and 5K (17:20). Watt, a junior, ran so beautifully and strong in both the1500 and 800 trials and then showed her toughness and power in the finals, winning the 1500 in 4:29 and placing 2nd in the 800 (2:11.03), .08s behind teammate Bailey Henshaw who won gold. It was a sweet victory for Henshaw, who placed 5th in this event at last year's championships.

Our heps and decs kept the multi legacy alive as each group started the scoring off with 18 points per gender! Sophomore Brooke Whitburn placed 2nd with a score of 4786, moving her into 6th on the All-Time list (AT), 10 points past her pen pal Abbey Butler. Kylie Herman was fourth with a PR score of 4457, true frosh Melanie O'Brien was 5th with 4151 and Kristen Brunk was 8th with 3971. Phill Bailey was held out of the decathlon so that he could diversify in individual events and save it for the NCAA meet in 3 weeks. The move paid off as he ended up earning the "High Point" award, scoring a total of 30 points! He was second in the long jump (23'11 1/2"...8th AT), second in the 110 HH (14.57..tied for 4th AT with JP Smith and Dean Williams) and 2nd in the 200 (21.66). Sophomores Lane Andrews, Scott Pater and Dalton McBride provided the dec duties and each of them PR'd. Andrews ran 4:29.17 in the 1500 to bring his point total up to 6617 (what a stud!!), well over the 6200 provisional standard. He earned a spot on the #2 podium stand. His buddy Pater stood on the other side of the podium, placing 3rd with a "provo" mark of 6445 (what a stud!). McBride, who only competed in the pole vault this year, agreed to participate in 10-event/ two day competition to help score for the team. He placed 5th in his first dec in over a year and cracked the 6K barrier (6007) for the first time (what a stud!).

Taylor Sack and Lauren Schnelli provided loud fireworks in the vertical events. Sack won the pole vault with a lifetime best clearance of 12'6 1/2", moving her into 4th AT and 11th on the current NCAA list. Looks like she is going to Michigan in a few weeks! Schnelli won the high jump, leaping like a kangaroo over 5'7 3/4 to tie her 3rd AT with Julianne Conrad. She is tied for 12th on the NCAA list and will also likely make the trip to Michigan. Once again Gary Towne's distance crew put on a spectacular show. Freshman Sadie Gastelum ran the 7th fastest 10K in school history to place 2nd. Joining Burkhart on the steeplechase podium was McCall Habermehl, who placed third in a time of 10:54. In the men's race Alex McGuirk joined alumnus Tim Tollefson as a 3-time champion in the event. Teammate Barron Maizland was second. They ran 9:03 and 9:06 respectively. Omar Pullido and Brandon Taylor added 3 more points by placing 7th and 8th. Just like the female Alex, the male Alex doubled back to win the 5K. His victory marks the 14th straight year that a Chico State athlete has won the men's 5K. Nick Grubiss and Aaron Mora completed an incredible 1-2-3 sweep, giving the team a very much need 24 points at the end of the meet.

Only the Pole Vault and 4 x 400 remained. After the point tally of the 5K our men overtook San Diego for the first time in the meet 202 to 196. With the vault still underway it was time for the last race...the good old mile relay. Our team of Tristan Lake, Geoff Brown and Phill Bailey new that our title chances hinged on winning the race...and they did, out dueling UCSD 3:14.78 to 3:15.18. The score was now 212 to 204 with the pole vault in the balance. An agonizing 20 minutes past before it was revealed that UCSD earned 12 points to our 1. For the first time in 12 years the CCAA would have a Men's Champion that was not Chico State. For 11 straight years the CHICO STATE WILDCATS have brought home the championship banner and tee shirts. It was another great championship meet for our team but we ended up finishing 3 points shy of our rivals, who had a home run of a meet themselves. No team has ever scored 213 points and not finished in first.

Back to the ladies version of the 4 x 4, while they finished in second place they also rose up to 2nd best in our school history with a time of 3:48.93, only .23 from the school record that was set in 2012 (Nicole Cooper, Melissa Rene, Erika Kalmar and Aimee Rodgers). This year's team featured Aja Erksine (who finished 3rd in the 200 and 5th in the 200) Henshaw, Watt and Marina Berrios (2nd in the 200 with a 25.07 and 3rd in the 100 with 12.27).

With so many individual battles throughout the 3 days it's not possible to report each one but there are a few more that need to be brought "up on stage". Seniors Sean Goetzl and Dallas Wilson went out with a bang. Goetzl took home the top prize in the 110HH by running the 3rd fastest time in school history (14.56). He trails only David Burtion (14.55) and Hakeem Dyson (14.38). Goetzl also placed third in the 400H to give the team 16 points. Wilson placed 2nd in the shot put with a heave of 50'2" while freshman Nick Denton tossed the iron 47'3" to place 3rd. Brian Egge, who had been limited for almost a month made his final throw of a javelin a memorable one. The speared sailed 185-1 to move him past a UCSD thrower and into 2nd on the podium. What a strong finish to his career.

Senior Emily Denton completed her miraculous comeback from an early April hamstring injury that really limited her ability to hit the peaking phase of our training. Her mental strength and resolve pulled her through as she not only qualified for the 100m hurdle finals but then placed 6th to add 3 more points to our total. Steve Irving's 400m hurdle crew gave the ladies 12 more points; frosh Jena Turner sacrificed a hamstring in with her fourth place finish (she did her victory lap on crutches!), Rose Stephens was fifth and Tibire Edwards was 6th. Jami Duarte cracked the 40' barrier in the shot put for the first time (40'3) to place 5th. Ary Mires broke into the school record books by triple jumping 36'11 3/4" (10th AT). She placed 4th. Our men's triple jumpers placed 4th 5th and 8th. Derek Taylor lead the way with a jump of 46'6" The men's 4 x 100 went through many challenges and obstacles this year including several DQs and several position changes due to injury...including school record holder Hakeem Dyson, who was lost to a foot injury in our second meet. The team never waivered and on at this final meet of the season they finally cracked the 42s barrier. Chad Baur, Pater, Bailey and Brown had the best hand offs of the year and placed 3rd with time of 41.33, tied for 10th best AT with Kenny Moore, Mike Ziimmerman, Yuli Henry and David Sawyer.

One the absolute highlights of the meet was the first race of the final day when the 4 x 100 team of Berrios, Jones, Erksine and Ruby Davis churned out the 2nd fastest time in school history (46.83) to win the event for the second year in a row!! With the conference meet now in the rear view mirror, the team now sets its sights on the national championships which will be held on May 21-23. Some fantastic pictures were provided once again, thank you to the contributions of Janine Turner, Hakeem Dyson and Brian O'Brien: