Twenty-one Distance 'Cats departed Chico for Southern California last weekend in search of top competition and hoped NCAA marks to help their chances at qualifying for the upcoming national championship meet to be held in Michigan next month. No less than 14 of these athletes recorded at least NCAA provisional marks in their respective events, as the 'Cats enjoyed a very exciting and productive trip south. The Wildcats joined athletes from across the country to converge on the So Cal area for a series of associated meets at Mt Sac (Mt SAC Relays), Azusa Pacific (Brian Clay Invite) and Cerritos (Beach Invite) from Thursday through Saturday. Many in the Chico contingent, pressed by competition at the highest level that we've seen so far this season, responded by notching some very impressive marks. In fact, the Chico State all time top-10 list will need no less than 8 adjustments from this trip alone, including two performances that were the #2 All Time in school history, and several others that were Top-5 A.T. Although I don't have time to describe each race I'll first list some of the top times accomplished by the 'Cats below, and follow that with some race descriptions.
I'll start by listing the marks posted by the 'Cats at each distance.
Women's 1500m: Olivia Watt: 4:23.88 #2 All Time CSUC, NCAA Auto, 5 second PR! Bailey Henshaw: 4:33.73, NCAA Provisional, #9 A.T. CSUC, 3 second PR! Lora James: 4:34.46, NCAA Provisional, #10 A.T. CSUC, PR. Women's Steeplechase: Alex Burkhart: 10:27.26, NCAA Auto, #2 A.T. CSUC (1.5 sec off school record), Meet Record. McCall Habermehl: 10:49.26, NCAA Provisional, #5 A.T. CSUC, 13 second PR. Women's 5k: Sadie Gastelum: 17:46, PR Women's 10k: Quetta Peinado: 36:15.17, NCAA provisional, #9 A.T. CSUC. Men's 800m: Kyle Medina: 1:51.75, NCAA Provisional, Nearly fell with 150m remaining in run. Men's 1500m: Kyle Medina: 3:46.07, NCAA Provisional, #7 A.T. CSUC Men's 5,000m: Alex McGuirk: 14:10.51, NCAA provisional, #5 A.T. CSUC, PR Nick Grubiss: 14:23.37, NCAA provisional, PR Aaron Mora: 14:33.59, NCAA provisional, PR Steven Martinez (red shirt): 14:41.17 Aaron Thomas: 14:46.46 Alan Cuevas: 14:46 (Ran 1k of race before falling and being spiked, then returned for heat II) Dillon Breen: 14:51.56, PR (First sub 15 run) Men's 10k: Will Reyes (red shirt): 29:41 (15:08/14:33 splits!!) PR, Would be 5th fastest by a 'Cat AT. Men's Steeplechase: Barron Maizland: 9:15, NCAA provisional Omar Pulido: 9:19, NCAA provisional
Some Top Race Summaries:
Women's Steeplechase-Beach Invite:
True Frosh Alex Burkhart would run a VERY gutsy 10:27 PR while winning the Beach Invite in a new meet record and NCAA Auto time. Taking the lead at the gun and realizing that the 10:22 seed that had entered the meet wasn't present, Alex went to work trying to hit the hoped 83 second revolutions. A 78 second first lap looked great, but was Well under the hoped rhythm. Lap 2 was covered in 80 seconds and running 10:00 pace, no one was game for trying to stay close. Laps 3 and 4 were covered at the hoped 83 second pace, but given the hot early splits some slowing over the second half would be inevitable. especially given the lack of competition near her. Lap's 5-7 were 85-87's, which had her hovering around her 10:32 PR pace with a lap to go. A nice closing circuit would take the still steeple newbie to the eventual 10:27 finish time. Remarkably, while running with no competition and having gone out a bit too quick, she still only missed Amy Schnittger's school record by 1.5 seconds! The record is certainly a possibility in the coming CCAA and NCAA Championships. Humboldt school record holder Kori Gilley will have to choose between the 1500 and steeple for CCAA's, but whichever she does choose, she'll have a Wildcat waiting with an NCAA Auto qualifying mark of her own.
Also enjoying a huge effort of her own in the same race was Sophomore McCall Habermehl. The former HS 300m hurdler has worked extremely hard to build the strength to be an NCAA qualifying steeplechaser. On Saturday McCall started toward the back of the large Long Beach invite field, and gradually worked her way through the pack, employing her flawless hurdle skills and savy water jumping. The goal splits for McCall were 86-87 seconds per lap, in hopes of dipping under the 10:50 mark (her PR going in was 11:03). Here are her splits per lap: 87.5, 85.8, 86.6, 87.3 (5:47), 88.2, 87.1, 84.0, :42 (long 200). As Habermehl ran her target pace to a T, the competition came back to her like opponents in a car race video game. Her big push over the final 600m earned her the sub 10:50 goal, while also placing her 3rd overall behind teammate Burkart, and a post collegiate competitor who would place second. Although Habermehl's mark doesn't guarantee her a spot on the line at the NCAA championships, it has always made the meet in years past. McCall's boost onto the school's all time list bumps 11:00 performer Emily Stickney off after just a few years. It also signifies that Chico has now had 10 performers in our school's history to run under the 11 minute threshold.
Women's 1500m-Beach Invite:
Junior Olivia Watt had run her 4:28.0 PR at the Beach Invite a year ago, and eyed a big PR and a hoped NCAA Auto mark under 4:25 on Saturday. Fresh off back to back weekends of 800 PR's Watt's spirits and confidence level was high entering the race.
From the gun of the second section of the 1500m Watt placed herself among the top-3 overall and the lap split made this coach wince a bit as only 67 seconds had expired as she sailed through the first check-point. Backing off the pace a touch, Olivia allowed the leader to separate from the front and a few athletes made their way around Watt, as she settled in for the tougher laps ahead. With a middle 800m in the 2:23 range Watt knew that a huge PR was in the offering if she could close well over the final 300m. Just as she's done in countless practices, Olivia began to increase the frequency of her strides, and one by one, opposing athletes came back to her. A very fine final 100m and a 51 second closing 300m split gave Olivia a shiny new 4:23.88 PR and a second place finish overall.
Going into this season Bailey Henshaw had a 1500 PR of 4:42, but finally dropped under the 4:40 mark with her 4:36 run several weeks ago. Since then she's dropped our school record from 2:10 to 2:09 in the 800, so she eyed another hoped pr at the longer distance heading into Saturday's race. Running a very well managed and executed race in the third section, the College of the Sequoias alum would sail to a 6th place 4:33 NCAA provisional qualifying performance. Her performance places her #9 on our school's All Time top-10 list, knocking off Chico State distance legend Katie Lee into the second tier of the list.
Men's 1500m Invite Race-Beach Invite:
RS Frosh Kyle Medina had watched countless fast heats of 1500m races between the two days of track that he watched in the days leading up to his Saturday morning 1500 in Cerritos. He had also endured a tough 800m race the day before at the Brian Clay Invite, where he was well on his way to a 1:50 performance, when he was tripped and nearly fell, and then cut off, all in the final 150m. His 1:51.7 finish time was a seasonal best, but left him hungry for more.
Much like his female compatriot had just minutes before, Kyle was pulled out quite quickly through 400m, hitting at least a 59.0 split. Sensing that this wasn't sustainable, he settled a touch over the next lap, and hit 800m in 2:00. If a 60'ish third lap could be achieved, Kyle would surely give 3:45 a good run for it's money. The third lap brought some slowing (62.5 seconds) and Kyle now seemed to re-engage and pull some of those who had moved ahead of him, back in. Recording a final 300m of 43 seconds Medina would hit the tape 5th overall, less than a half of a second behind the second-most famous Alec Baldwin in the U.S. Medina's outstanding run dropped 3 seconds from his former best of 3:49 (although his 4:05 mile converted to a 3:46.9). Although it wasn't an automatic NCAA mark, Kyle most certainly secured a spot on the line at NCAA's with this outstanding effort. The solid step forward also gives us a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and years, as Medina closes in on hopefully becoming the 'Cats first sub 3:40 guy.
Men's 5,000m-Mt Sac (Friday Night):
Senior Alex McGuirk has specialized in the steeplechase since walking onto our team 4.5 years ago, and this dedication has taken him to a school record, several conference titles, and an All American certificate. Credit Alex for Not wanting to be known just as a great barrier runner. This weekend Alex turned down a Great opportunity to break his own school record in the steeple, for an opportunity to run a fast 5k at Mt Sac. Carrying a 14:22 PR to the line with him, Alex went to work on the Mt Sac track hoping to run a time in the 14:10 range or better.
Although I wasn't there to witness the run (I was in Azusa with a large group of 'Cats competing the same evening) assistant Sean Smith did a wonderful job of relaying splits our way.
Alex rolled through splits of 4:33 and 9:09 for 1600 and 3200m (Note: Alex' 3200m PR in HS was 9:31). Despite the honest pace, the next mile brought a quickening rhythm as Alex recorded around a 4:30 for the next 1600m stretch. A huge sprint down the final straight carried McGuirk from a position outside the Top-10 to an eventual 3rd place finish. His final time (14:10.5) most assuredly guarantees him a spot on the line at the NCAA Championships, and also ranks as the 5th fastest in our school's history.
Men's 5,000m-Brian Clay Invite (Asusa Pacific):
Sophomores Nick Grubiss and Aaron Mora enjoyed a good dose of Championship style racing during their 5k heat at Azusa Pacific on Friday night. Running in a heat with a wide range of PR's (13:58-14:35) Nick Grubiss and Aaron Mora went to work at the tail end of a lead group the couldn't quite figure out just what pace they wanted to run. After opening laps of 69 and 70 seconds the following 800m was run in a sizzling 2:12 split. This rapid surge in pace carried them through 1600 in a very fast 4:31 split.
During the second lap Wildcat 14:34 guy Alan Cuevas was clipped from behind and stumbled to the track. Athletes behind hurdled and spiked the senior as he curled in a ball to try to avoid further damage to his body. Bloodied and bruised he ran by yours truly and signaled what had happened on the other side of the track. A lap later, I pulled him from the track and had him report the incident to meet officials so they could hopefully put him in the second heat (which they did thankfully). Meanwhile the big surge at the tail end of the first mile went slightly unnoticed by yours truly who was tending to Cuevas, but Aaron Thomas (14:38 PR) chose not to commit to the suicidal pace ahead as Grubiss and Mora had. Thomas ran the remainder of the race solo, outside catching and passing a few victims as they came back to him.
After passing the 1600m mark in 4:31 the pace at the front slowed back to a sustainable 69 second clip and Mora and Grubiss had the chance to re-group briefly. Then came lap 6, which was another 66 second revolution, which was in essence the straw that broke the camel's back. Mora was first to fall from the group, and then Grubiss was too cast astray. Grubiss rolled through 3200m in a swift 9:08 PR, but his splits were headed in the wrong direction unfortunately. Mora was in a similar position several seconds back, feeling the pain of some wicked early laps.
With 600m remaining and sensing that they still might be able to salvage a PR both Grubiss and Mora rallied back a bit. Nick recorded a 67 second revolution from 600m out, and closed the final 200m in 31 seconds stopping the clock with a 14:23 PR. Mora used his trademark final 200m sprint to salvage a 14:33 PR and NCAA provisional as well. Thomas who'd been running mostly solo for the last 10 laps, held on for a 14:46 final time.
Women's 5k-Brian Clay Invite:
Sophomore Sadie Gastelum went into the weekend with a PR of 17:51, but hoped to run somewhere in the mid 17's. Unfortunately the main pack in her race went out well beyond her desired tempo, so Sadie had to endure some fast early laps just to stay with a small chase pack that trailed the main group by 100m by 3200m. Sadie rolled through swift early splits of 5:33 and 11:14 (1600/3200m) before succumbing to the quicker than hoped start. Damage control and a solid finishing lap carried the tough runner to an eventual 17:46 PR.
Men's 800m-Brian Clay Invite:
Frosh Kyle Medina was entered in the fastest 800m heat of the Azusa meet, and was excited to test himself against a talented field of 2 lappers. Carrying a 1:50.9 PR to the line (recorded last season while red shirting) Kyle put himself on the heels of the leader as he rolled through 800m in a slowish 54 second split. As the pack realized the pace wasn't as fast as hoped at the front, things became a bit crowded and frantic over the next 200m. With a nice spot near the rail Kyle allowed several athletes to go by on his right, and heading into the final 200m he was boxed pretty well, but still on a pace to run at least 1:50. As he approached the Chico contingent on the final turn someone behind Kyle caught his trailing spike, and he stumbled and nearly fell to the track. Just as he re-gained his balance and some momentum, he was cutoff by an opponent going around him. As he passed yours truly I thought his day was done, but thankfully he rebounded over the final 100m and passed several athletes while regaining some momentum. Although his final time wasn't a PR he had recorded a 1:51.7 seasonal best and NCAA Provisional mark.
Mt Sac Women's 10k:
Junior Quetta Peinado would debut at the 25 lap distance with in hopes of maybe improving her NCAA chances (17:18 5k PR won't be making the dance). Peinado looked very well and controlled going through 5k in a swift 17:51 split, but the second half proved to be a much rougher piece of running. With a modest lifetime mileage total due to a few injury plagued years, Quetta struggled to keep the pace rolling over the final 3k. Competitive to the finish Peinado managed to hold things together over the final kilometers, hitting the finish in 36:15. The debut 10k effort was an NCAA provisional mark, and made her the 8th fastest 'Cat over the 10k distance. 2 time Olympic Trials Marathon qualifier Lindsay Nelson-Tollefson was the alum to fall from the ever evolving 25 lap list. Tollefson now sits at #10 on the 5k with her 17:13 PR. But Peinado awaits another shot at the 5k as well, with a 17:16 PR. ;v)
Mt Sac 10k Men:
Will Reyes has enjoyed quite a red shirt year, and almost everyone associated with our program is probably wondering why the heck he is red shirting. Hopefully as he posts some of the best times in the country during his eventual senior year, we'll look back at this year as just a stepping stone along the way. On Thursday night Will landed in a very tactical 10k field that went through the 5k in a dawdling 15:08 split (for him). It seemed that everyone who touched the lead in the first ½ would fall back through the field, never to be seen again, so the pace really didn't start picking up until the second half.
Just as we started to think that a sub 30 wasn't in the cards for the group, the pace dropped to a 70 second per lap clip, and the once large lead group, began to dwindle one by one. Reyes seemed to spring into action as the pace began to jump and he was certainly ready to run. Twice during the final 2k Reyes grabbed the lead pulling a few sub 70 second revolutions, including one with just 1200m remaining. Although he doesn't have great closing speed over the final 400m Will liked to go hard from some distance out, and his surge from 3 laps out put the finishing touches on Washington State's John Whelan and Georgetown's Brian King. Reyes would lose a final lap sprint to Georgia's Luke Baker and Mexico's Victor Manuel Gonzalez, but he would hold on nicely for 3rd with a 67 final revolution.
As the splits were later analyzed it was found that Will had split 15:08/14:33 for his two 5k's on the evening. Considering that his 5k PR going into the season was 14:27, this was a pretty telling statistic. There's no doubt that Will is in sub 29:30 shape in a race that had gone out a bit faster, but the style of this race, lends itself nicely for future championship racing, which oftentimes requires shifting of gears late in in the game. Stay tuned for the coming years!
Next Up: For the 'Cats is the CCAA Championships to be hosted by SF State next weekend.
Prelims start at 1pm and conclude w/ the 10k finals at 6:00pm on Friday May 1. Finals follow on Saturday May 2, from 1pm-5:15pm. We hope to see some of you there! ! !
Now a word from Coach O:
After a wonderful 2-day home stint the previous weekend the Track 'Cats headed south last weekend to compete in 4 different meets. The bulk of the team contested the East Bay Legacy meet in Hayward, while others headed down to Southern California for the Mt. SAC relays, Azusa Pacific's Brian Clay Invite and the Long Beach-hosted Beach Invitational at Cerritos College.
Our all-time top 10 lists were once again "abused" by our current crew, with record performances occurring in each of the 4 stadiums.
The action all started on Thursday with 6 athletes reaching provisional qualifying marks for the NCAA championships. CCAA XC champion and school record holder in the Steeplechase Alex McGuirk provided the biggest impact performance on day 1. Already ranked 10th in the nation in the Steeple the senior blazed the 5th fastest 5K time in school history (14:10) to move into 10th on the current national list and 1st on the CCAA list. He was joined on the "provo" list by teammates Nick Grubiss (14:23) and Aaron Mora (14:33), who hit their times at the "next door" Brian Clay meet. Quetta Peinado provided excitement in the ladies 10K, running the 9th fastest Chico State's long history, clocking 36:15 in her maiden voyage for that distance. Lora James lowered her 1500 PR to 4:34.46 while freshman Kyle Medina started his weekend off with a 1:51.75 in the men's 800. More on him to come...
There was plenty of action on Friday and coaches Towne, Nooney, Beeman and Hanf were busy sharing updates on their cell phones to one another as to keep each up to date.
Medina, who plans on a 1500/800 double at conference (an maybe nationals??!) secured his trip to Michigan by hitting an AUTO MARK in the 1500 placing 5th out of 97 runners at the Beach Invite. His blistering time of 3:46.07 ranks 7th all-time on the impressive top 10 list at Chico.
Sadie Gastelum, who hit a provisional mark in the 10k the last time she saw action added a 5K PR to her resume, finishing the 12-and-a-half lap race in 17:46.
The Friday highlight in Hayward was when redshirt decathlete Jake Mitchell won the javelin with a PR toss of 180'9". Fellow decathlete Scott Pater added 20' to his javelin PR finally allowing his implement to sail to higher skies...149'2". His previous PR of 129' was a concern but things are falling into place for the sophomore decathlete.
On Saturday, Alex Burkhart continued her sensational rookie season by hitting an NCAA AUTO MARK in the steeplechase. The true freshman laid down a 10:27.26 to close within 2 seconds of 2-time All-American Amy Schnittger's school record. Schnittger was a 3-time CCAA champion in the event. McCall Habermehl added to the excitement, adding her name onto the possible entrants into the national championships by demolishing her PR with a time of 10:49.26- 5th fastest in school history!
Olivia Watt and Bailey Henshaw also continued their own re-writing of our record books by posting the 2nd and 9th fastest 1500m times. It has been a non-stop effort by our record book editor (yours truly) to continue to update performances by these two. Olivia is our former school record holder in the 800 (ranked 2nd all-time) and is now our second fastest in the 1500 with her time of 4:23.88. Only Ayla Granados has run faster (4:21.62). Bailey is our new school record holder in the 800. She now has a 4:33.72 PR in to go along with it. Both of these athletes are also starting runners on our 4 x 400 team which is currently ranked 3rd in the CCAA.
One of the highlights of the East Bay meet was not a demonstration of a specific time or distance but rather one of shear courage and dedication to getting back into a competitive field before her collegiate career came to a close. Senior hurdler Emily Denton, one of the clear emotional leaders of our women's team, went down with a pretty bad hamstring pull at the American River Invitational the first weekend of April. She was determined to make it back, and on Saturday she inspired many athletes, coaches and parents by qualifying for the finals in the 100H! Despite his joy in seeing his long-time pupil overcome long odds, Coach Steve Irving promptly decided that she was done for the day, opting for a wise and conservative approach to preparing her for the upcoming CCAA championships in 2 weeks. She looks ready to finish her career in a Wildcat uniform at a 4th consecutive conference meet.
Denton's freshman teammate Jenavieve Turner carried that bit of hurdle magic into her 400m hurdle race and blazed the 8th fastest time in school history to win the race. Her time moves her past Truckee mayor Alicia (Mercer) Barr -1993- and Chico resident Goldie Sizemore-1983.
Geoff Brown, who has been diligently managing his own hamstring ailments broke out with 2 exceptional performances. In his first 4 x 100 appearance since the Feb. 28th meet at Humboldt, Brown anchored the unit to a season-best time of 42.00. The best is yet to come for those four (Chad Baur, Scott Pater, Phill Bailey and Brown).
Brown also won the 400 meters in a personal record time of 48.89.
Big PRs and season best marks by Aja Erksine, Dalton McBride, Kayla Lawson and Brock Kraus energized the team in our final tune-up for the post season. Erskine, who was already the top 400m runner in the CCAA and a member of the school record 4 x 1 team (Amilia Santos, Ashley Jones, Erskine and Kasey Barnett) bettered her previous PR of 56.19 by running the 3rd fastest time in school history-55.76- to win the dash.
McBride, Lawson and Kraus have not made a single headline, top 10 mark or conference leading performance all season, but all the while continued to work hard on a daily basis to better themselves and their team at the same time. McBride took home the Field Cat of the Week stuffed animal by winning the pole vault with a personal record clearance of 15'4 ½". Teammate Justin Woo cleared the same height to place second. Lawson her best 100m time of the year (12.64) in the trials and then blazed a 12.54 in the finals to place 2nd. Kraus, the unquestioned leader of the sprints crew lowered his 400m season best mark to 50.07, his fastest time in 4 years! His 200 time of 22.68 was also his best 'deuce" in that same time period.
Sean Goetzl was another event winner , taking home gold in the 110HH (14.61). He also placed 2nd in the 400H (54.50) and ran a 50.4 2nd-leg on the winning 4 x 4 team. Tristan Lake, who anchored that team with a 48.7 split, won the 400h in time of 53.68.
The team will take this upcoming weekend off from competition to prepare for the "Prom" meet of the season. Our ladies are seeking a 6th straight team title while our men are aiming for a 12th straight conference crown.
