Wildcats catch a break in the weather
for this year's consolidated Chico Distance Carnival & Twilight meet

Saturday April 6, 2019
Comments & photos by Gary Towne/Chico State Distance Coach

This past Saturday the 'Cats enjoyed a rare home meet opportunity as we hosted the 2019 Chico Twilight Invitational. We've switched up the format of the meet, nixing the Friday evening sections, while creating a typical late afternoon/early evening Saturday competition. Given the heavy winds and rain that we received the day before this year's event, we were fortunate to catch a window of respite from what has become one of our longest winters that this coach can remember.

With our home meet scheduled between big competition weekends in the Bay and Southern CA (Mt Sac/Azusa), most 'Cats were scheduled to step down to the 1500 distance on Saturday. We did though, have a few running 5k's and 800's. Follow along for quick recaps of the action and a few pictures.

Women's 800m: True frosh Katie Hawley raced aggressively chasing OIT's sub 4:30-1500m gal Danielle De Castro through 600m, before fading a bit over the final 200m. The gritty frosh still recorded a seasonal best 2:20.00 mark at a point in the meet when the winds were still a factor on the backstretch. Look for continued time drops in the weeks to come. Teammate Taylor Bailey Lustyan placed 3rd overall with a near PR of 2:24.03.

Women's 5,000m: Sophia Peasley ran her first 5k ever a week ago in Chabot and managed an impressive 18:33 result. On Saturday the Nevada City native went out with the lead pack through 1600m in an aggressive 5:42 split (low 17:50's pace). After 2k of hanging with the leaders Peasley fell from the group and ran the following 3k solo, and in a world of pain.. but still managed to slice some 7 seconds off her time from a week ago. 18:26 is the new standard for the true frosh who has shown the determination and toughness already this season to let this coach know that she'll be a factor in the years to come as fitness catches up with racing savvy. Fellow true frosh Kela Leamy also enjoyed a nice PR, racing to an 18:38 finishing time after a very challenging academic week (she's an Engineering major w/ a near 4.0 GPA).

Women's 1500m: Nicole Anthony had run 4:50 for the 1500 in 2016, 2018, and 2019, and on Saturday the 5th year senior managed to skip the 4:40's all-together, en-route to a new 4:39 PR while winning the Chico Twilight. Teammate Nora Pizzella (So) also sliced 5 seconds off her previous best with a 2nd place 4:41 PR. Fellow Sophomore Haley Boynton also notched a 5 second improvement while stopping the clock at 4:45. Following are the 'Cats and their 1500 results from Saturday evening:

Men's Open 1500m: No less than 10 Wildcat men ran to personal bests in the 1500 on Saturday evening. As the afternoon winds calmed down the Chico crew did a great job of taking advantage of a nearly windless window and hammered out some solid 1500m racing. Between the Seeded and Invite heats a total of 9 'Cats dipped under the 4:00 window.

Men's Seeded 1500m: After 2 years of injury and setbacks RS Soph Cameron Tomlinson has Finally caught a break and managed a very consistent window of training. The San Diego native has also done a great job of backing this new found fitness up with confidence and toughness. On Saturday Tomlinson sat at the front of the pack behind teammate Matt Herrera who was charged with towing the Seeded race through 800m @ 3:59 pace. As his close friend Herrera stepped onto the infield with 700m remaining Cameron assumed the lead and looked prepared for challenging for the win and his first sub 4 minute run.

Tomlinson would lead the final 400m hitting the tape in 3:58.21, while true frosh teammate Rory Abberton would also eclipse the 4:00 mark for the first time while taking second overall. The only disappointing part of this run was the poor start by a number of the Chico runners who we'd hoped to get under the 4 minute threshold. Wyatt Baxter and Remington Breeze who'd enjoyed 5k PR's the week before had terrible opening laps, and had too many bodies to get around (20 runner field) in trying to kick down the straight. Still, most of the 'Cats enjoyed Pr's and raced well.

Men's Invitational 1500m: The 'Cats' Matt Herrera would double back 12 minutes after stepping off the track from pacing the seeded section, to lead the Invite men through the same distance. The goal for the Invite section was to find 800m in 2:04 and then let the racing take care of itself. If all went well hopefully the race would be won in the low 3:50's, which would most likely equate to PR's for the Chico crew. Credit Matt Herrera with a solid early lead out, which was predictably followed by the aggressive racing Eddie King who seemed determined to make sure the pace did not slip from a potential PR run. As King jumped to the lead approaching 800m, teammates Jack Johnson, Teddy Kassa, and Michael Good, were all connected to this initial break.

With 150m remaining Jack Johnson (3:54 pr) seized the lead, and as King looked tired from his big push, it appeared that it was Johnson's race to win. Hitting another gear down the stretch as well was Garrett DeLong. The San Diego native had a rough winter training block and hadn't yet broken 4 minutes this season, but now was finding a gear that no one else in the race could reach. The final 50m brought a last push by King, who would break the tape first in a 3:52 PR (previous best was 3:54). Jack Johnson would follow closely, just holding off the hard charging DeLong. Chabot standout Reece Proctor (1:51.6-800m last week) would finish next, followed closely by Teddy Kassa, who lowered his pr from 4:00 to 3:54 on this day. 7 of the 8 'Cats would at least dip under 4:00, with true frosh Brian Hastings (3:59 a week ago) falling off the pace in the final lap.

Up Next: In two weeks the Distance 'Cats take their annual sojourn south to compete in the Mt Sac, Bryan Clay, and Long Beach Invites in their last big weekend of racing before the CCAA Championships. Stay Tuned!