I'm proud to report that your Chico State distance crew survived another 4-day road trip to Southern California while competing in 3 different track meets. Most of our 10k runners and several 5k'rs competed at the Mt Sac Invite (hosted at El Camino CC), while 1500/5k/and 1 steepler competed at Azusa Pacific's Bryan Clay Invite. A few others competed at the Beach Invite, along with several others, who doubled back from earlier longer races w/ 15's at Beach. Overall, 9 Chico athletes ran at least NCAA provisional qualifying marks. No less than 14 enjoyed Personal Best runs at their distances, and 2 managed to break into the school's All Time Top-10 lists. It was a long and exhausting three days, but well worth the efforts, as the 'Cats are now one step closer to the championship season and are carrying some good momentum going into them. I'll start by listing the times run at the various distances below to help simplify the recap a bit.

Before diving into a few of the race re-caps, I'll list the performances posted by our crew 

 
800m: 

Michael Good: 1:50.56 (NCAA provisional, only .02 off PR) 
Derek Morton: 1:51.12 (NCAA Provisional) 

1500m: 

Matthew Herrera (So)             3:52.2  PR 
Garrett DeLong (Jr)              3:54.4 
Rory Abberton (red shirting fr)  3:56.5  PR 
Cameron Tomlinson (So)           3:57.8  PR
Teddy Kassa (Sr)                 3:57.9 (run day after 5k PR) 
Jason Intravaia (Sr)             3:58.3 (run day after 5k) 
Conor Wells (Jr)                 3:58.7
Matt Herrera (So)                3:59.1 (run day after 1500 PR) 
Raymond Lopez (Jr)               4:00.08 (PR, run 2 days after 10k) 

5,000m: 

Eddie King (Sr)                 14:06.7   PR, #6 AT CSUC, NCAA Qualifier
Teddy Kassa (Sr)                14:30.01   PR
Jason Intravaia (Sr)            14:49
Christian Woolfolk (Jr)         15:27

10,000m: 

Wyatt Baxter (So)               30:08  PR, NCAA Provisional 
Raymond Lopez ( Redshirting Jr) 30:25, NCAA Provisional 
Luis Ortega (Jr)                31:18 PR 
Jack Emanuel (Fr)               31:47  PR/Debut 
Remington Breeze (So)           32:01

Women: 

1500m: 

Desirae Jones (Jr)             4:43.0   PR 
Taylor Lustyan (Fr)            4:53.5
Desirae Jones (Jr)             4:48.3 

Steeple: 

Haley Boynton (So)           10:50   NCAA provisional, run in 87 degree temps @ Azusa

5,000m: 

Talia Swangler (Jr)          17:57   PR, First sub 18 
Jalen Burns (Fr)             18:40    run in 85 degree temps @ Azusa 
Lucie Chevreuil (Jr)         18:49

10,000m: 

Alexandria Tucker (So)       35:11   #6 AT CSUC, NCAA provisional 
Nora Pizzella (So)           36:08   PR, NCAA provisional 
Kayden Carpenter (Jr)        36:27   PR, NCAA provisional 
Sophia Peasley (Fr)          39:11   PR, Debut

Women's 1500m: Junior Desirae Jones dropped some 7 seconds off her seasonal best and several tenths off her PB while recording a low 4:43 time at the Bryan Clay Invite. She would double back with a 4:48 the next morning at the Beach Invite.

Men's 1500m: Sophomore Matt Herrera lopped an impressive 2 seconds off his PR at the Bryan Clay Invite while recording a 3:52.2 PR. Red shirting true frosh Rory Abberton also managed a solid PR rolling to a 3:56 time. Sophomore Cameron Tomlinson who just broke 4 minutes for the first time several weeks ago sliced another second from his PB while running a 3:57.

Women's Steeplechase: As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20 and in looking back on the weekend I wish I would have entered Haley Boynton into the Mt Sac steeples and not the Clay invite. Temps at Clay during the women's barrier race hovered just below 90 degrees, and given the long winter the 'Cats have endured the heat was Not a welcomed element. Boynton did a solid job of staying focused and ran to a 10:50 finish, some 8 seconds off her PR. Her 10:44 seasonal best has her ranked #13 in the NCAA with 2 weeks of potential improvements ahead.

Men's 5,000m: Eddie King, Jack Johnson and Teddy Kassa raced in the second fastest 5k field of the Mt Sac Invite on Friday evening. Unfortunately, Johnson (14:07 a year ago @ Mt Sac) had struggled with back spasms in the days leading up to the run and would have to abandon the race before 1600m was reached. King (14:13 PR) rolled through 1600m in 4:29 and looked antsy to take his turn at the front of the pack. Teammate Teddy Kassa (14:49 PR) ran through 1600 just a second or two behind King.

Predictably King took the lead in the fifth lap and cranked the pace down to an unnecessarily fast 66 second split. This surge spread the once large lead group into smaller sub-groups. After about a kilometer of leading, several athletes swung around the tiring King, who's pace had slipped to a 69.4 for the 7th lap. Eddie would hit 3200m in 9:03, while Kassa would reach the metric 2 mile in 9:06 (both 3200m PR's). Neither looked exceptionally well with 1 mile to go, so damage control would be employed over the final laps.

Despite a painful stretch beyond 3200m, King managed to notch 3 X 68 second revolutions, followed by a 67/:32 final 600m stretch, hitting the finish in a 14:06 PR. King's new PR makes him the sixth fastest 'Cat ever and will send him back to the NCAA Championships, where he was an All American a year ago. Kassa fought hard over the final mile as well and managed a 14:30.01 PR and NCAA provisional mark. There's no doubt that if Teddy had been a more evenly paced race around 69 seconds per lap, that he could have run in the 14:20 range, but that will have to come on another day. For now the Senior can be happy with a 19 second PB.

Women's 10,000m: Alexandria Tucker, Nora Pizzella and Kayden Carpenter each enjoyed big 10k PR's at the Mt Sac invite this year. Tucker's 5k PR pointed to a potential sub 35 minute run, something just a handful of 'Cats have done in the history of the program. Early splits had the Danville native right on track for a 35:00 clocking as she would hit 5:32, 11:08 and 16:48 splits for the first 3 metric miles (17:30-5k split). The second half of the run would include some slowing as Alex fought to cover moves that the leaders of her heat were making. Some mature and poised running over the final 2k gave Tucker a giant 3 minute PR with her 35:11 finish time. The new personal standard ranks #6 on the 'Cats All Time top-10 list and insures her of her first trip to the NCAA track and field championships.

Teammate Nora Pizzella ran a very similar race to her teammate Alex Tucker, only her goal was a sub 36, which would put her in the conversation for a berth to NCAA's.. and the school's Top-10 list. Pizzella rolled through early splits of 5:44, 11:28 and 17:14 (17:57-5k) and looked capable of managing a 35-something run. During the fourth mile of the run a split occurred ahead of Pizzella and the Chico runner failed to get around the slowing runner in front of her and onto the heels of the group ahead. In hindsight this move was the decisive one of the race for breaking 36 minutes, as Pizzella was unable to bridge the gap up to the group ahead and settled a bit over the second half of the run. A strong final push gave the Chico Sophomore a solid 36:08 finish time and earned her an NCAA provisional mark as well. Nora is also within 10 seconds of the school's Top-10 list, which will be a small goal as she looks ahead to the coming years. Teammate Kayden Carpenter has endured a torturous spring season with constant hamstring issues. The junior fought hard and ground out a very impressive 36:27 10k, also earning her first NCAA provisional mark in the process.

Alumni Alert: 2018 CSUC alum and current school record holder Hannah Dorman (33:55 record) lopped off an impressive 40+ seconds from her PR while racing to a 3rd place finish in the fastest heat at Mt Sac while finishing in 33:14. Her new personal best should be fast enough to gain entry into her second USATF Championship meet, which will be held this summer in Des Moines, IA.

Men's 10,000m: Sophomore Wyatt Baxter has been a joy to coach. He's a hard worker, very coachable and a great teammate. On Thursday night the Simi Valley native lowered his 10k PR from 30:54 to 30:08 at the Mt Sac meet. The inside goal was to try to break the 30 minute barrier (something only 10 Wildcat athletes have done to date). Baxter rolled through the initial 5k in 15:02 and ran the following 1600m in 4:50 (close to the pace needed). At 8k (24:07) Baxter was 7 seconds over pace but there was still a chance if the sixth mile could be covered somewhere under 4:50. Unfortunately a 4:54 split from 8k to the bell left a bit too much ground to cover over the final 400m, but Baxter still closed well and finished off a solid run with his new PB. It was a mixed bag type of day for the remainder of the 'Cats 10k guys as junior Luis Ortega rolled through 5k just behind Baxter, before fading to a 31:18 finish time.

Red shirting JC transfer Raymond Lopez ran through 5k with Baxter, faded over the second half, but managed his second fastest 10k to date with a 30:25 run. RS Frosh Jack Emanuel was attacked and bitten by a dog during his pre-race run just hours before we left for LA on Wednesday morning. With the dog owners unable to produce papers for the dog's vaccinations Emanuel had to endure the first round of Rabies shots just before the team's departure. Not exactly the lead up one would hope before his first track 10k, but Emanuel still made the trip, and managed a 31:47 debut for the 25 lapper. He'll have second chance at the distance at this week's CCAA Championships.

Next up for the 'Cats are the CCAA Championships to be held this Friday/Saturday May 3rd and 4th. UCSD will be the host school so San Diego area Wildcat alumni hopefully we'll see you at the track!