McCall, Gastelum go sub 17 at SF Last Chance Meet, qualifying for 2nd NCAA berth
Solid races by Fisher, Good, Baxter & King but only Conner is moving on

Saturday, May 13, 2017
Comments & photos by Gary Towne/Chico State Distance Coach

A handful of Wildcat distance runners made the trek to San Francisco on Saturday in an attempt to notch some PR's, while taking advantage of a season's worth of accumulated fitness. Thankfully it was another successful visit to the bay, as some big races were run and Pr's were achieved. Topping the list of accomplishments was the 5k run of McCall Habermehl and Sadie Gastelum who each smashed through the 17:00 barrier with big runs. As usual I've broken down each race with some brief descriptions below:

Men's Steeplechase: Junior Connor Fisher and Sophomore Jack Johnson entered the last chance steeplechase in search of a sub 9:00 run that it might take this year to make the upcoming NCAA field. Fisher's 9:02 PR was ranked 19th going into the weekend, while Johnson stood at 24th with his 9:05.

Fisher led the entire run as Humboldt's Dustyn Salomon (CCAA runner-up) and Johnson followed closely through the first half. Over the second half of the run Fisher developed a lead despite falling off the 9:00 rhythm that was hoped. With 400m remaining and with a commanding lead Connor needed a sub 65ish final lap to break the 9:00 barrier. A solid close would earn Connor a 9:01 PR in only his third steeple finish ever. Jack Johnson would unfortunately catch a trail knee on a barrier with 400m remaining and would have to abandon the race.

Men's 1500m: Everyone who is fortunate enough to eclipse the 4:00 barrier remembers that race well. For red shirting true frosh Matthew Herrera that day came on Saturday with his 3:58 run. Look out for this young man in the coming years.

Women's 1500m: School steeple record holder Alex Burkhart stepped down in distance to the 1500 for the weekend. A 68 second initial revolution made her PR chase harder than hoped, and laps 2/3 were a growing exercise in pain management. A solid close over the final 300m gave Burkhart a half of a second PR and 4:36.1 final time. Red Shirting true frosh Brittni Frace who has had numerous setbacks this season, made a late season debut to racing with her 4:58 effort.

Men's 800m:: Sophomore Michael Good started the season sick with a case of Mononucleosis. After missing much of the winter and early season training Good returned to training and eventually racing. Each week has brought improved fitness and results on the tracks. On Saturday the newly minted CCAA 800m champ looked to improve on his 1:52 seasonal best and hopefully challenge his 1:51 PR. Good jumped out to the early lead and ended up leading from the gun to the finish. Crossing 400m in 54.9 Good would close with a respectable 56.5 second lap earning him a 1:51.8 finish time. The mark is an NCAA provisional run, but will leave him shy of the NCAA field by just 1 second.

Men's 5,000m: The story of the men's 5k today was the run of red shirting true frosh Wyatt Baxter who dipped into the 14:40's for the first time. Baxter is prepping for the upcoming USA Junior 10k championships in Sacramento and looked very strong as he negative splitted his most recent PR. Sophomore Steven Velarde (14:37 PR) has struggled since a flu bug knocked him backward the week of CCAA's. Sophomore Eddie King closed well to tie his 14:44 PR and red shirting teammate Daniel Harrigan-Cota would notch his first sub 15:00 of the '17 season with a 14:55 final time.

Women's 5,000m:
The most exciting race of the day came last for the Wildcats, as fifth year seniors McCall Habermehl and Sadie Gastelum took aim at hoped sub-17 minute 5k runs. Gastelum had run a 17:05 in the SF invite earlier in the season, and McCall had run a 17:15 PR in the same meet a year ago. Both walked onto the CSUC team five years ago with very modest HS backgrounds, and both have gone on to win CCAA titles while also punching tickets to NCAA's in other events. Teammate and 16:48 performer herself Alex Burkhart was solicited to help set the pace for Gastelum and Habermehl through 3200m.

As the race began, Chico alum and former steeple record holder Amy Schnittger (now running for Strava TC) seized the lead running behind a teammate pacer. The Chico trio ran around 6th-8th positions locking into an even 81 second per revolution pace. As the race drew into the second mile several athletes who had gone out with Schnittger were now feeling the effects of sub 80 second revolutions at the front, and the Chico women were making up ground on the victims. At 3200m (10:52) Burkhart stepped off the track, leaving Habermehl and Gastelum to hammer through the final 4.5 laps of racing. With Schnittger en route to a huge PR at the front, there was no challenging for the win, but the Chico women now ran in 2nd and 3rd overall with all of their closest pursuers falling behind quickly. Trading laps in the late going to stay within reason of 17:00 pace McCall and Sadie would run a series of 80/81 second laps.

With 400m remaining a sub 81 final lap would insure each of achieving their goal. With more in the tank than even she might have expected Habermehl surged around the penultimate turn running the 200m from the bell to the start of the final turn in a staggering 35 seconds. Gastelum shifted gears as well, but not as drastically, as she now ran several seconds behind her teammate. A solid final 200m gave Habermehl a 16:50 final time (71 second final lap!). Gastelum would cross the finish in 16 minutes and 54 seconds cutting more than 10 seconds off her previous best. True frosh Nora Pizzella closed well and barely missed her Personal best (2 seconds shy) despite having contested the 10k at CCAA's last weekend. Red Shirting frosh Hope Morgan would finish with an 18:58 PR while placing 16th overall. Schnittger would go on to win the race in a huge 16:20 PR (her first time under 17:00!).

With this run the 'Cats now have 4 women who have run between 16:45-16:54 on the season, and all have crashed into the school's stout Top-10 list. Casualties of Habermehl's and Gastelum's recent runs on our Top-10 list were Stephanie Consiglio and Jennifer James (Serna). James was the school's second sub 17 minute 5k runner ever, after Katie Lee's amazing 16:25 school record run. As of this writing the school's top-10 list starts at 16:25 and ends at 16:54. It's been an amazing run for this year's distance women and Saturday's 5k highlighted this fact.

Next up: The NCAA Championships begin on Thursday May 25th, giving the 'Cats a much needed weekend off racing. Of course this weekend off is graduation weekend, and a good collection of our distance runners will be taking part in the ceremonies. Announcement of NCAA fields will be made today (Tuesday the 16th) so stay tuned.