Despite running just a handful of athletes this weekend, and resting a good portion of our NCAA qualifiers the 'Cats had a very impressive showing at the West Coast Last Chance meet (at SF State) and the Sacramento State Open. In fact two school records were set, and a number of other Top-10 marks were achieved between the two meets. At least one athlete moved himself from outside the NCAA scope, to definitely finishing his season at the "big dance" while several others improved their chances at making the final meet with their PR runs. Please follow for results and some re-caps.

Sacramento State Open: SCHOOL RECORD!!! Senior Bailey Henshaw became the first Wildcat to break the 2:10 mark earlier this season, when she and teammate Olivia Watt both eclipsed Watt's previous school record. Today Henshaw took a Huge step forward lopping another 2 seconds off her previous school best mark. Watt became the 'Cats second athlete to break 2:10 while finishing second overall behind her training partner. The two would later run 56 (Watt) and 57 (Henshaw) second splits on a new school record 4 X 400m relay (3:47.0) team. What an amazing day and season for this pair. Henshaw also becomes our women's distance team's third athlete to obtain an NCAA Automatic mark (Joining Watt-1500, and Burkhart-steeple) on this elite list.

San Francisco West Coast Last Chance Invite:

Women's 3,000m Steeple: Sophomore McCall Habermehl is our school's 5th fastest steepler with her 10:49 PR posted at the Beach Invite several weeks ago. This mark has easily advanced to the NCAA Championships every year since the event has become a part of the NCAA championships some 15 years ago. 2015 has been an exceptional year in the women's barrier event though, and going into the weekend 10:44 was the 20th fastest time in DII on the year. McCall stepped to the line knowing she would need at least a 5 second PR to punch her ticket to NCAA's. McCall ran a beautifully executed race chasing Santa Clara's frosh phenom Grayson Murphy through earl splits that had her on 10:40 pace by the half-way point. Predictably the laps became a bit slower over the second half, but the Woodcreek HS grad fought hard trying to garner a PR and NCAA berth. Unfortunately McCall would fall just short of her existing PR with a 10:50 finish time. Despite missing the NCAA mark Habermehl has enjoyed quite a season and is poised to make a great run at the NCAA meet in the coming two years (she's only a sophomore).

Men's Steeple: the main story (for the 'Cats) in the men's steeple was that of true frosh Zachary Price who was wrapping up his red shirt season. Price took a 10:00 PR to the start line, but would run to an impressive 9:42 on the day. With hurdling skills that are quite smooth, along with a great attitude for the race, Zach will be welcomed to the Wildcat roster next spring. Especially given the graduation of 3 NCAA provisional qualifiers (McGuirk, Maizland, and Pulido).

Men's 1500m: Sophomore Falco DiGiallonardo had run a 3:49.49 1500m in the early season Wildcat Invitational but hadn't improved that mark in the few opportunities since. In most years the sub 3:50 mark is a guaranteed spot on the line at the NCAA meet, but the 2015 season has been a fast one at the 15 distance. DiGiallonardo stepped to the line knowing that he would need to run 3:48 to guarantee his NCAA berth. Running at mid pack and rolling through early splits of 59.9, and 2:02, DiGiallonardo was on pace with 700m remaining. Unfortunately the third lap was a touch on the slow side, which would require a 59 second final revolution to reach his goal. Falco would cover the final circuit in 60.3 seconds, which earned him a PR of 3:49.30. Despite having sliced only .19 off his previous best, Falco would leapfrog two NCAA competitors on the national list, but his final ranking of 25th will leave him on the selection bubble unfortunately.

Men's 1500m(Heat II): Germay Tesfai toed the line on Saturday understanding that would most likely be his final run in the Chico uniform. With a pr of 3:53 to his credit Tesfai desperately wanted to take a crack at sub 3:50. Unfortunately meet officials bumped him out of Heat I and into the slower heat despite his coaches' efforts to get him in the fastest heat. Germay rolled through 400m in a swift 60 second split, running on the heels of two early leaders. The pace settled during the second lap as the pack hit 800m in 2:04. Realizing that the pace had slowed dramatically Tesfai took the front and would lead the entire final 700m of the race. In fact Germay would run his final 800m in an impressive 2:00 en-route to an eventual 3:49.95 finish time and heat win. Although the time will surely fall short of making it to the NCAA meet, Germay's massive PR run was an impressive display of guts and determination.

Men's 1500m(Heat III): Red shirting true frosh Derek Morton has had a rough spring season having dealt with an assortment of setbacks. On Saturday he would win Heat III looking strong throughout.

Men's 5,000m: The main storyline going into the SF 5k was that of Nick Grubiss who had run a 14:23.9 PR at the Azusa meet weeks previous, with some very uneven pacing from the front. In watching the NCAA list in the days leading up to the final weekend of qualifying Nick was going to land outside the championships if he didn't clip at least a second off his PR. Yours truly was convinced that Nick could get the mark if he were in a more evenly paced race, so our red shirt standout Will Reyes was solicited to pace his teammate to a hopeful sub 14:20 run. Also in the field were Alan Cuevas (14:34 PR) and two red shirting true frosh Steven Velarde and Arturo Arevalo (neither had broken 15 previous to Sat).

Santa Clara assistant distance coach Darius Terry paced the front of the race for the first 6 laps before stepping off the track. Only three athletes followed Terry, Chico's Grubiss and Reyes, and Alaska Anchorage red shirt Michael Ramirez. The pace was right on the hoped mark for a sub 14:20 run as the quartet hit 1600 in 4:34. As Terry stepped off the track Reyes took the fore trying to keep his teammate on a steady PR pace. 3200m was reached in 9:10 and now the Sophomore was 4.5 laps from making the NCAA field. The 9th lap brought some obvious pain from Grubiss and Ramirez actually swung around and took the lead.

Will Reyes did a masterful job of reading Grubiss' body language and slowed up a touch to help his teammate through a tough 10th lap. By 4k Reyes had pulled Grubiss up to and past the tiring Ramirez, who tucked in behind the Chico pair. Despite his early plan to only run the first 4k as a pacer Reyes made an impromptu decision to stay in the race to help Grubiss to his goal. The pair ran 69.0, 68.1, 69.0, and :32 second splits to the bell lap. Grubiss now grabbed the lead and needed only a 70 second final revolution to run the mark to make NCAA's. The sophomore from San Diego would far out-do this goal as he sprinted to the line with a 61.0 final lap while hitting the tape in 14:10! Despite having no intention before the race of finishing, Reyes would cruise in with his second fastest time ever (14:12) and Ramirez held strong with a 14:14 PR.

Almost lost in the excitement at the front of the race was the run of our two true frosh Velarde and Arevalo. Neither had broken 15 before, but both tucked into the main pack the entire race, while running a good number of 70 and 71 second laps. Both ran through 3200m under their HS PR's, but each held on tight, not thinking twice about the hot pace. Velarde would find the finish first recording a 14:37 PR, and Arevalo would follow in 14:41. Velarde's mark is the #3 time ever for a Chico State true frosh.

Next up for the 'Cats will be the NCAA Championships in Allendale, MI next Thurs- Saturday. I'm hoping to do a short write-up on the qualifying 'Cats in the coming days. Stay tuned and thanks for the support!

Coach Hanf take on the meets:
Every year a van or two gets sent to a "last chance" meet in hopes of improving their chances at qualifying for the national championships. It seems that each year we return home with at least one addition to our NCAA travel itinerary. This year was no exception! We sent one van to the West Coast Last Chance meet at SF State and another to Sac State for their OPEN meet. The meet at our state capitol produced 2 school records and one automatic qualifying mark!

Bailey Henshaw was a part of all that, first crushing her own school record in an eye-opening/jaw-dropping performance in the 800. Her teammate Olivia Watt did lots of the grunt work pacing the race (60s opening lap). She became the second Chico athlete to break the 2:10 barrier. For the second race of the year Olivia ran faster than the existing school record only to land #2 all time list. That's because Henshaw won each of those races. Bailey lowered our school record to 2:07.67 while Olivia PRd in 2:09.20. Wow! Both ladies teamed up with Aja Erskine and Marina Berrios to break the school record in 4 x 400. Aja (56.7), Bailey (57.2), Olivia (56.9) and Marina (56.2) finished with a time of 3:47.08. The previous record was set in 2012 when Nicole Cooper, Melissa Rene, Erika Kalmar and Aimee Rodgers ran 3:48.70 to break the 21 year old record (Wissmath, Winn, McLaughlin, Miles). Great history!!!

Meanwhile, over in the Bay area, Nick Grubiss was punching his plane ticket to Michigan. A week earlier Alex McGuirk, Grubiss and Aaron Mora went 1-2-3 in the CCAA 5K in the same stadium. Grubiss ran 14:31 at conference to place 2nd. That race was all about getting team points. The last chance meet was about hitting a specific time. The goal was sub 14:20. He did that, and then some, going 14:10 to secure his spot at the NCAA big dance next week.

We learned on Tues that 12 Wildcats were selected to the championships: Ladies- Olivia Watt (800 and 1500) Alex Burkhart (Steeple), Bailey Henshaw (800), Taylor Sack (pole vault) and Lauren Schnelli (high jump) Men- Phill Bailey (Decathlon), Barron Maizland (Steeple), Alex McGuirk (Steeple and 5K), Kyle Medina (1500), Nick Grubiss (5K), Aaron Mora (10K) and Tristan Lake (400 Hurdles). The coaching staff will accompany these track Cats on an adventure to Allendale Michigan next Tues May 19 and will return on Sunday the 25th...hopefully with a bunch of All-Americans (top 8 in each event).