It was another productive weekend in Southern California as a small army of distance runners from Chico took to the tracks at the Mt Sac/Beach, and Azusa (Bryan Clay) invites. There were many special performances logged, including three national leading 1500's and our school's second ever sub 14 minute 5k. It was Kyle Medina's massive school record run (3:41.80) in the men's 1500 at the Bryan Clay meet that stole the show though. His new PR eclipses Scott Bauhs' school record (the 3:42.00 conversion from his 3:59.87 mile) and makes him the sixth fastest collegian on the year. Thankfully Medina's breakthrough 1500 was only a part of what was an amazing weekend for the Chico crew as our All Time Top-10 lists took another hit from a number of athletes, and Senior Olivia Watt ran the two fastest 1500's by a DII runner on the year in consecutive days. Below I'll list the event by event times posted by the 'Cats, and then I'll talk about some of the bigger performances.
I'll start by listing the marks posted by the 'Cats at each distance.
List of Times run by 'Cats at each distance: Men's 1500: Kyle Medina (So) 3:41.80 - 2nd place @ Bryan Clay Invite. School Record, DII Leader. Kyle Medina: 3:46.72-1st place @ Beach Invite out of 110 competitors. Women's 1500: Olivia Watt (Sr): 4:25.16- Beach Inv. Seasonal Best, NCAA Provo, NCAA (DII) leader Olivia Watt (Sr): 4:25.31- Mt Sac Inv. Seasonal Best, NCAA Provo, NCAA (DII) leader Lora James (Sr): 4:28.49- Bryan Clay Invite, #4 A.T. CSUC, NCAA Provo Men's 5,000m: Will Reyes (Jr): 13:56.02- #2 AT @ CSUC, NCAA Auto, #4 DII in 2016. Aaron Mora (Jr): 14:29.30- PR, NCAA provisional Steven Velarde (Fr): 14:38.00- Seasonal best, misses NCAA mark by .5 seconds Connor Fisher (So): 14:38.88- Seasonal best, misses NCAA mark by 1.3 seconds Andrew Cobourn (Jr): 15:00.07-Seasonal best. Women's 5,000m: Quetta Peinado (Sr): 17:42- Seasonal best, (coming off injury). Yajaira Zarate (Fr): 18:00.22- Seasonal best Danielle Oden (So): 18:00.85-Seasonal best Haley Kroll (Jr): 18:02.36 Julie Finn (Jr): 18:35.1(Seasonal best) Men's 10,000m: Steven Martinez (Jr): 30:00.45- 11th A.T. CSUC, NCAA provisional, misses sub 30 by... Arturo Arevalo (Fr): 31:42- Distance debut. Women's 10,000m: Karlie Garcia (So): 34:47.45- #2 A.T. CSUC, NCAA Provisional, Distance Debut. Men's 800m: Michael Good (Fr): 1:51.67- PR, NCAA provisional Derek Morton (Fr): 1:53.1 Men's Steeple: Brandon Taylor (Sr): 9:22.79, Seasonal Best, #5 CCAA Women's Steeple: McCall Habermehl (Jr) 10:29, NCAA qualifier, Her second best time ever. Alex Burkhart (So) 10:40, Seasonal best mark. Nicole Anthony (Fr): 11:09.45, PR, #6 in CCAA on year.
A few of the highlight races broken down.
Kyle Medina (So) ran two very impressive performances on Friday evening and Saturday morning. In the Bryan Clay invite on Friday evening Kyle ran at the tail end of a talented pack hitting the bell with at least 8 runners in front of him (2:45.99 split). The final 400m was a thing of beauty. With each 100m Kyle would pass a few runners while shifting gears ever so slightly. In the penultimate 100m on the final turn he ran up to the shoulders of a small lead group, who was now chasing an Arkansas runner who had sprung to the front. Off the turn Medina made a surge from the pack and chased the leader. Although he fell just short of winning the race Medina crossed the line at 3:41.80 having run an incredible 55.12 final 400m circuit. Even Kyle was shocked when he saw the final time appear on the clock. His final 800m split btw was a swift 1:54.5.
The next morning Medina raced at the Beach Invite on the new oval at Long Beach State. Among the entrants was Adams State's NCAA new NCAA leader Sydney Gidabuday who had won the Mt Sac 5k the night before in an amazing 13:36. Adams also had 13:58 guy Brian Baum entered, and of course there were plenty of other solid competitors in this Gold section heat (fastest of 10-ish heats on the day). Kyle took the pace from the start, rolling through 400m in 60.0. The pack tucked in behind him. Medina led the field through 800m in 2:01 and now he had several strides on the rest of the field. Approaching the bell Gidabuday reached and passed Medina and now DII's best at 15 and 5k were locked into a two man battle. Medina ran on the Adams' runner's heels for about 200m before passing and accelerating away from Gidabuday and the rest of the field. Over the final 100m Medina put a full 2 seconds on Gidabuday while taking the win in 3:46. His final 400m would be covered in 58 seconds.
Will Reyes' (Jr) 5,000 at the Mt Sac Invite, was another exciting race to watch. Despite having to speak to meet management on two different occasions Will was FINALLY allowed into the second fastest 5k heat of the evening at Mt Sac. It's a good thing, otherwise there's a chance no one from the field would have broken the 14 minute barrier.
After running among the top-5-10 overall for the initial 2 kilometers (4:27 1600 split) Reyes sensed the pace was slowing at the front and by the start of the 7th lap, he had control of the front of a 30+ man field leading the pack through a 67 second 8th lap, and a 66 second 9th (3200m split- 8:57). With 600m remaining several competitors finally went around Will, who now did his best to latch onto the quickening pace. A 65 second lap leading to the metric 3 mile was covered in 65 seconds (13:24 split). A 31 second final 200m gave the junior his first sub 14 minute 5k run ever as he stopped the clock with a 13:56.0 PR. Will's new personal best is the second sub 14 run by a Chico runner, joining Wildcat legend Scott Bauhs on this elite list. Will's movement into the All Time CSUC list bumps former steeple school record holder Beau Rogers' 14:16 off and leaves former school record holder Eddie Silva as the current #10 A.T. with his 14:15 time.
Olivia Watt (Sr) raced to a pair of NCAA leading times on consecutive days at the Mt Sac and Beach Invites. On Friday Watt was towed by a talented field through early splits of 70/2:20/3:30 before trailing off a bit over the final 300m. Holding her form as well as she could over the difficult final 200m, Watt finished with a 4:25.3 finish time. The next morning Olivia ran through similar splits, and closed a bit better to slice a quarter second from the previous day's work. After the weekend her new seasonal best stands atop both the CCAA and NCAA lists. (Note: Olivia's PR is 4:22.80 run in the 2015 NCAA final where she placed third overall.)
Karlie Garcia's (So) debut over the 25 lap distance gave the 'Cats a lot to look forward to as she continues to gather experience and confidence. On Thursday night Karlie competed hard from the gun running through splits of 5:31, 11:03, 16:38 (17:19 @ 5k), 22:11, 27:49, 33:27 and a final time of 34:47.49. The fact that she stated within minutes of finishing, that she enjoyed the run, is another encouraging sign. Karlie's debut at the 10k makes her the second fastest Wildcat ever, just edging past multi time All American Tori Tyler. With Karlie's inclusion on to the All Time list, teammate Quetta Peinado's 36:15 from a year ago falls off the list, leaving former school record holder Rene Fontono as the current #10 A.T.
Steven Martinez (Jr) raced to a very exciting 30:00.45 final time in his first 10k in a CSUC uniform. Despite missing 5 complete weeks of running in late Dec/Early Jan. Steven has bounced back just well enough to chase some big PR's. On Thursday night Steven ran beautifully while recording 15:10/14:50 5k splits, while narrowly missing breaking the 30 minute barrier. The run was bitter sweet in many ways, as it leaves him just shy of the previously mentioned barrier, and also just 2.5 seconds shy of the 'Cats all time list. It also currently ranks him 20th on a VERY deep NCAA list. Fingers crossed that this mark allows the gutsy Martinez the opportunity to race on the NCAA stage next month.
Lora James (Sr) took another great step forward this week with her 4:28.45 1500m run at Azusa's Bryan Clay Invitational. After narrowly missing the 4:30 barrier at last week's Chico Twilight meet, James smashed it this week, becoming the 6th 'Cat to accomplish this feat. She also moves up to #4 on the CSUC All Time list, and solidifies her spot on the start line of the NCAA Championships. Her current PR ranks her #7 on the latest NCAA list.
Michael Good (Fr) has sliced time off his 800m PR with each attempt this season. First he lopped 2 seconds off his former 1:55 PR with a 1:53. Then a week later he raced to a 1:52 PR. This weekend at the Bryan Clay Invite he dropped to 1:51.67 and entered the NCAA provisional realm. Another second drop could see the RS frosh on the start line of his first NCAA championship race.
McCall Habermehl (Jr) and Alex Burkhart (So) raced to 10:29/10:40 steeples in the Elite section of the Mt Sac Invitational. In hindsight the advanced sections were a bit too fast for the two Wildcats, who ran much of the race trailing the fast moving field ahead who all went out under 10:00 pace. Despite not having much in the way of competition around them throughout the race both McCall and Alex did a wonderful job of staying poised and focused and each came away with a positive showing. For McCall this was her second best time ever, and Burkhart's 10:40 chopped an important 8 seconds off her 10:48 NCAA provisional mark. Her new seasonal best should be enough to punch her ticket to the NCAA meet next month.
Aaron Mora (Jr) enjoyed his first PR of the 2016 track season with a hard fought 14:29 run at the Mt Sac Invite. With a trademark :29.0 final 200m, Mora finally dipped under the 14:30 barrier. His new personal best for the distance puts him on the NCAA provisional list as well.
Steven Velarde (fr) and Connor Fisher (So) raced to 14:38 runs for the 5k at the Clay Invite. For Velarde this was just a fraction of a second off his PR set at the conclusion of last season's red shirt year. For Fisher the run was a seasonal best and 9 seconds off his PR. Each missed the NCAA provisional mark of 14:37 by just over 1 second.
Brandon Taylor (Sr) and Nicole Anthony (Fr) each enjoyed solid steeples at the Beach Invite on Friday morning. Anthony would record an 11:09 PR which leaves her just shy of the NCAA provisional standard. Brandon's 9:22 was a seasonal best and chopped another 10+ seconds off his previous seasonal effort. Each solidified spots on the CCAA roster with their runs as well.
