What a weekend that was! After a forced 2 year break from track and field competitions, it was incredibly exciting to be back on the championship stage in San Francisco this weekend at the CCAA meet. Although both track squads took 2nd place in the team competitions behind a much-improved Cal Poly Pomona team, I was extremely proud of our distance team for their standout performances across the board. Of the 10 distance events contested this weekend, Wildcats stood atop the podium in 7 of them. In two of the three remaining events we had the runner-up. The women's 800m final was the only of the 10 that didn't have a Chico runner on the podium.

I often tell our athletes that competition brings out the best in athletes, and often lead to unexpected PR's and fast performances. This was indeed the case this weekend as most 'Cats stepped off the track with at least one PR. Although we all wanted to leave SF with conference banners that we've become accustomed to through the years, we're extremely satisfied with the efforts that were put forth by the Wildcat athletes. It should also be noted that our 18 year men's 5k winning streak was extended to 19, as the 'Cats once again swept the 5k podium.

Please read below for the blow by blow accounts of the various races.

  First, Here's a quick cliff notes version of our results: 

 
Conor Wells:  1st in 1500 and 800 finals w/ 3:46.1 PR (#8 A.T. CSUC), 1:53.1 
Cameron Duquette: 1st  in 10k, 30:02, 5th- 5k 14:35 
Jack Emanuel: 1st 5,000m, 14:20, 19th straight title for CSUC @ CCAA 5k.  
Peter Normann III: 1st 3k Steeple, 9:15 PR  
Rory Abberton: 2nd  1500 (3:47.1 #10 A.T. CSUC), 3rd 5k 
Brayden McLaughlin: 2nd 5k, 14:21  
Walker Doucette: 3rd 800m, 1:54  
Brian Hastings: 4th in 1500- 3:49 PR, NCAA provisional  
Bennett Woodward: 3rd 3k Steeple, 9:24 PR  
Daniel Hernandez: 4th 3k Steeple, 9:25 PR 
Joshua O'Neill: 6th 10k- 30:41,  6th-5k 14:36  
Matthew Herrera: 7th-1500, 3:54, 12th-5k, 14:47 
Michael Ramirez: 9th-10k, 31:23  
 
Marissa D'Atri: 1st-Steeple 10:31 (PR, NCAA, #4 A.T. CSUC), 1st-5k  
Hannah Ryan: 2nd- 10k 36:45, 6th 5k, 17:39 
Katie Hawley: 2nd- 1500, 4:33.6 PR, 5th- 800m 2:18  
Gracie Dupuis: 3rd-5k, 17:21 PR  
Jaclyn Denham: 10th-1500, 4:53, 10th- 5k, 17:53  
Jennifer Ruiz: 13th 1500, 4:57 PR, 19th - 5k 18:37 PR  
Natalie Dinin: 7th in 800m heat, *2:28, (was clipped by an opponent and fell during run)

FRIDAY:
Women's 1500m Prelim: The women's 15 prelim went as smoothly as we could have expected for the Chico ladies. Katie Hawley and Jaclyn Denham did as little work as needed to grab auto spots into the final in their heat. True frosh Jennifer Ruiz who'd Barely made the CCAA roster, and who's 5:03 PR ranked her somewhere around 30th on the CCAA list heading into the championships,. Managed to run a 4:57 1500 in the prelim, missing the 12 woman final by just .3 seconds!

Men's 1500m Prelim: The men's 1500 prelims went pretty much according to plan until a massive scare happened in heat 2. With Conor Wells and Brian Hastings taking the first and second auto spots into the final in Heat 1, the 'Cats just had to get Rory Abberton and Matt Herrera through in heat 2. The race began in bizzare fashion, as two East Bay runners sprinted through 300m in 43-44 seconds with Rory and several other athletes closely in tow. Herrera decided not to bite on the hot early pace, and hung back around 10th place through 400m. By mid race the two East Bay athletes were gassed and falling backward in a big way (they ended up running 4:33's together). Herrera was slowly making up time on the lead group, which had settled it's pace substantially. With 400m remaining Abberton ran at the front of the 6-7 man lead group, with Herrera near the back.

As the race quickened down the backstretch a runner cut in front of San Marcos' Trevor Boaz (3:46 PR) causing him to fall to the track. Running off Boaz' stride at this point, Herrera flew over Boaz and somehow sumersaulted onto the infield with 250m remaining in the race. While Boaz slowly got up and jogged to the finish, Herrera jumped back onto the track and began a furious sprint, re-passing at least 3-4 runners over the final 200m and running a 4:00.. making the final by just 1 second! After all of this, Boaz was advanced to the final on protest, helping to cement what would be an epic 15 final for the men.

Men's 800m Prelims: The 'Cats would enter 3 athletes in the men's 800m. Conor Wells (ranked #1), Walker Doucette (#7) and Brian Hastings (#8). With only 8 advancing to the final and with Hastings and Wells doubling back from the 15 prelim, we took a deep breath hoping we could get all three into Saturday's final. As the dust had settled, we managed to get Wells and Doucette through safely. The difference was 2 lifetime PR's by two Humboldt athletes who were running fresh, who each beat Hastings' time. leaving the Oroville native as the #9 finisher on the day. Who knows, this setback might have lit a brighter fire under Brian though as his 15 final the following day was a very nice bounce-back run.

Women's 800m Prelim: The women's 800 prelim was a mixed bag for the 'Cats. Junior Katie Hawley would double back from her 15 prelim nicely, notching a 3rd place heat run, while advancing to the final. In the second heat true frosh Natalie Dinin, who's PR'd in all but 1 race this year just needed to run within 3 seconds of her PR to advance to the final. Dinin was looking and positioned well racing down the backstretch of lap 2, when disaster struck. An athlete from behind her clipped her heel as she was falling to the ground. This in turn caused Dinin to stumble. For a brief second it appeared that she might be able to stay on her feet, but unfortunately she would hit the tartan surface, before hopping back on her feet and charging to the final turn. The loss of momentum and lost seconds to her opponents ahead, ended her hopes of making the final. A rough end to what's been a magical season for the hard-working athlete.

Women's 10,000m Final: The 'Cats would send just one athlete to the final of the 10k as Hannah Ryan (a SF native) toed the line as the #1 seed on paper. When looking at the list of entries closely though, Stanislaus had entered CCAA and West Region XC champ Kaela Dishion after not racing once on the track this spring. Also entered was Nancy Juarez from Stanislaus, who's 36:14 PR, set several years ago, was superior to Ryan's lifetime best (36:24) set earlier this season on the SF track. This was Juarez' seasonal debut for the 25 lapper. Of course there were other solid threats to a podium spot in the field, including defending CCAA Champ Claire Fisher of East Bay, and Humboldt's Rosa Granados (36:27 PR).

Hannah's workouts have gone exceptionally well as we prepared for this race. As usual we've done a lot of changing paced workouts in training in the weeks leading up, so Hannah was well prepared to switch from LT to 10k race pace as is sometimes needed in championship 25 lappers. The plan for Ryan would be to run with the front group, and try to make sure the race didn't become too slow, while also NOT committing to leading the entire run. From the start it became apparent that no one really wanted to lead, so Hannah took the front and rolled through 4 laps in a modest 5:56 split. During the 5th lap the Chico athlete pulled into lane 2 and allowed Humboldt's Granados to take some laps. Granados would lead a series of 90-91 second laps, getting the field to 3200m in 11:59. At this point the lead pack was around 8-10 strong. After sitting in for 6-7 laps and with the pace settling a bit, Hannah went back to the front and notched a series of 88, 86, 85, 86 and 88 second revolutions before swinging back out into lane two. This surge in tempo brought a much smaller lead group through the 5k in 18:35.

After a 2k pull from the front, and in a planned move, Hannah bumped into lane 2, forcing someone else to take the pace. Dishion reluctantly took the fore and led three laps with 90 second splits. This respite from the front got Hannah to the 8 lap to go mark, and as planned Hannah took the lead one last time in an effort to try to squeeze off all competition over the final 3200m of the race.

From 8 laps out Hannah led with 86, 85, 87, 86, 86, 86, and 88 second laps. This injection of pace dropped Jurez from the group, and with 1600m remaining it was a two-woman race between Ryan and Dishion. As hard as Hannah was working, Dishion was relentless in covering the pace, while also saving up for a last push to the finish of her own. Finally with 500m remaining Dishion made her move to the front, and immediately gapped Ryan. Not known for her kicking prowess, Ryan did NOT give up, switching gears herself, while closing with her fastest lap of the race (82). Unfortunately Dishion's sub 80 finishing circuit would give her a first track title, to match the one she'd won in the fall.

In hindsight, Hannah had run a masterful race and done all that she could to try to win this one. This was a great start to our distance finals for the meet.

Men's 10,000m Final: The men's 10k final was the most stacked 10k field since our joining the CCAA. Going into the race 3 men had run 30:00 or faster, and including times recorded in the race, 10 have run under the 31 minute threshold this season. The pre-race favorite was Joshua Litwiller a 6th year senior from San Marcos, who won the CCAA and West Region XC titles in 2019. Joshua had run in the 29:40's earlier this season for the 10k. Pomona had the number 2 seed in Leandro Candray who'd run 29:58 at the Finelli meet earlier in the season, as well as 14:29 for 5k at the Bryan Clay meet. Chico would have the third seed in Cameron Duquette, who's enjoyed a massive breakout season (he began the school year with a 5k PR of 15:20). Duquette ran 30:00 at the Fanelli meet and 14:32 at Clay. In both of those races he was leading Pomona's Candray with a lap remaining in the race, only to lose to the Bronco's fast closing-speed. Additional threats for podium spots were San Marcos' 30:08 guy Omar Pina, Chico's Joshua O'Neill (30:18 PR), and Stanislaus' Medhane Woldu (14:39 5k PR). Not even mentioned are San Marcos' Elias Kibrom (who ended up running 30:38 in the actual race) and Chico's Michael Ramirez who'd run a 30:48 earlier this season. Again, this was a stacked field.

Those who have watched Joshua Litwiller race know that he's not a patient man, and he doesn't like to run slow.. So it was no surprise when the San Marcos super-senior took a front group of 7 through a first lap split of 68 seconds. Most of the men listed above bit on the early pace, not wanting to let the lead group get away. Over the following 800m Chico's Michael Ramirez elected Not to run between these two groups and settled into a chase pack that included Humboldt's Elliot Portillo, and several Pomona athletes.. All knew that the final scoring spot in the race sat within this group.

The first 3200m saw a lot of San Marcos lead changing with Litwiller and Pina trading the front and keeping the pace under the 30:00 min threshold. The entire group of 7 reached 3200m in 9:34. The pace settled just a touch over the next 4 laps, as the lead group hit 5k at 15:01. Although the pace at the front slowed a bit over the next 1600, the main group saw some splintering. O'Neill was the first to fall victim to the relentless pace as he drifted into no-man's land shortly into the second half.

With Pina looking somewhat gassed from his early leading, the chores at the front boiled down to Litwiller, who's relentless pacing eventually dropped all but Candray and Duquette by 7k. Somewhere leading into 8k (24:08 split) Candray fell from Cameron's heels for good, and now we had a 2 man race for the title. Lap 21 was the slowest of the race, but Litwiller quickly dropped 72 and 71 second circuits leading up to the 800m-to-go mark. None of the changing gears could shake the determined Chico athlete, and with 600m remaining Cameron made a bit to win the race. Litwiller countered with a hard surge to re-take the front, but Duquette was determined Not to relinquish the front. As the two raced toward the bell, Cameron had established a several stride lead, and looked full of run for the final lap. Indeed he was, as his 63 second final lap was easily enough to earn himself the title of CCAA Champion (30:02). Litwiller held on strong for 2nd (30:09), while Candray would complete the podium with a 30:19 run. Woldu (30:24) would take 4th, while Elias would finish 5th in 30:38. Joshua O'Neill would close well in passing Pina for 6th (30:41). Humboldt's Portillo would grab that final scoring point with a 30:59 PR run, with Ramirez taking 9th respectively. What a race this was!

Saturday- Championship Day
Women's Steeplechase: Marissa D'Atri was the 'Cats lone entrant in this year's barrier event and her 10:44 PR led the CCAA by nearly 30 seconds. Unfortunately the mark won't be good enough to get her to the NCAA Championships, so yours truly floated the idea of solo'ing a hard effort, shooting for a 10:35 mark that would be needed to get to NCAA's. With only the last chance meet left to improve marks, if she didn't go for it here, everything would hinge on the result of next week's race in Azusa. Given the nearly ideal setting and conditions in SF, it was worth taking the chance. Conversation with Marissa leading up to the race was a bit non-committal in going after the mark, but I had a feeling she'd give it an honest run as the gun went off.

Sure enough a 76 first lap was all the info that we needed to know that Marissa was going after the time. With a needed lap pace in the 85 range, Marissa had some money in the bank w/ the hot early lap, and over the following circuits she did a great job of reacting to the splits that were being passed along to her. Lap 2 was an 86, then an 87, and 86 (5:36 4 lap split). Running an 85 to the 2k mark left no doubt that Marissa was going to run the time needed, now it was just a matter of how far under her PR she would go. After an 85 second 6th lap Marissa could sense she had it in the bag and now she stepped on the gas even more, closing the final 400m in 78 seconds and hitting the tape in 10:31. Marissa's new PR makes her the fourth fastest barrier runner in Wildcat history, behind 3 All Americans. Her time was also fast enough to defeat second place in the race by 45 seconds, and lands her inside the NCAA's top-10 with one week remaining in the qualifying window.

Men's Steeplechase: The men's steeple was a microcosm of the massive battle between Chico and Pomona for the team title. Earlier in the season Pomona's top barrier runner Nicholas Albro posted a 9:17 PR and conference leading mark. Chico's Peter Normann III opened his season with a 9:21 PR a week later, landing him at #2 on the yearly formchart. For most of the season the next mark on the list was a modest 9:50 time. Only 3 weeks out from CCAA's yours truly approached Bennett Woodward and Daniel Hernandez about the possibility of running a last-minute steeple at the Chico Invite to maybe move into the 3rd and 4th spots on the CCAA roster. 2 weeks later the two barrier newbies stepped on every barrier and splashed their way to 9:38/9:43 CCAA #3/#4 marks.. Then, last weekend Pomona counters with a 9:32 from a frosh who they had been red-shirting all season, putting him in uniform, where he ran the third fastest time in the CCAA leading into the championships. Now that the stage is set, here's how things went down on Saturday.

The plan for Peter was to operate at the front, not afraid to lead, but then again, not committed to leading the entire run. As the race unfolded his early leading looked very smooth and relaxed, and his superior hurdling and water jumping had to have an affect on pre-race favorite Albro from Pomona. Pomona's frosh Chris Razo ran on his teammate's heels in the early going, and Daniel Hernandez marked Razo for the initial 1200 or so meters. Bennett Woodward kept the front group within his grasp as he floated behind several seconds in no-man's land, and well ahead of the nearest competitor from another team.

By 1600m (4:52) Peter had Albro on the ropes, and sensing this, he kept the pace honest from the front, and with each passing lap his lead grew. Around the mid way point of the race Hernandez passed BOTH Pomona runners and looked as though he might grab that second spot on the podium. Albro held very tough though, and Hernandez was still just running his second steeple ever, so it wasn't a shock to see Albro move back into second with 1k remaining. As is usually the case in championship steeples, the final 1k was quite entertaining. With the race in hand for the win Peter ran a 72 second lap from 600m remaining, and was on a BIG PR pace. Coming into the final water jump with a lot of momentum Normann decided at the last minute to try to hurdle the final water jump barrier, opting out of the usual push off the barrier that he practices weekly. This miscalculation most likely cost him a sub 9:10 time, but the stumble and fall in the water didn't cost him the win thankfully. After a few slow strides and a look back Normann got the momentum going again, cleared the final barrier and crossed the line with arms overhead. While Peter was debuting his water jump hurdling (unsuccessfully) Albro was coming back to life enough to Barely hold off the hard charging duo of Woodward and Hernandez (nicknamed step-brothers due to our step-on-the barrier technique). With 200m remaining it appeared that Hernandez would grab the final spot on the podium, but a BIG final sprint to get past Pomona's Razo carried Woodward past his step-brother and onto the podium. The order of finish didn't matter of course, as the 'Cats had scored some valuable points toward the team's totals, and weren't far off sweeping the event. Albro's time was 9:24, as was Woodward's.. and Hernandez crossed in 9:25! Pomona's Razo PR'd as well in 5th with a 9:27 time.

Women's 1500m: The women's 1500 was a fun chess match to plan for, and even more fun to watch unfold. San Marcos sent 4 very accomplished women to the line including twin sisters Luz and Ana Mercado. Both were top seeds in the 800 (2:09/2:10 PR's), so neither would prefer a fast pace at the front given the impending 2 lap in a few hours. Luz's 4:34 was the CCAA lead on the season for the 1500 event with Chico's Katie Hawley trailing just behind with a high 4:34 PR set at the Clay meet several weeks ago. Stanislaus would counter with 4:32 runner Sabrina Garcia who hadn't had a great season to date, but is a known front-runner and was the CCAA XC runner-up this past fall. Chico's other entrant Jaclyn Denham a true frosh stepped to the line with a 4:42 PR, which would seed her right around the final scoring spot potentially.

Sensing that Stan's Garcia might try to run away from the field early it was decided that Katie would hop on her heels, and see how things played out from there. Denham would sit in a bit trying to keep that 8th spot close in hopes of adding to the team's point totals with a good run.

As things turned out, our guess proved correct, as Garcia sprinted off the line, covering the initial straight in 15-16 seconds and Hawley moved in just behind, as did East Bay's 4:41 runner Chase Worthen, and Monterey Bay's 4:49 gal Natalie Harper. The pace didn't slow a whole lot through the first circuit as the front 4 hit 300m in 51ish seconds.. and 400m in 68-69. The San Marcos women appeared to be caught off guard by the fast start and a noticeable gap began to form between the front quartet and a large chase pack that was still covering some pretty quick splits (Jaclyn hit 400m in 73ish seconds in the chase group). Garcia kept the pedal to the metal in the third lap and the lead over the chase group was becoming excitingly large for fans of those in the front group. It should be mentioned that Monterey Bay's gal hit a wall in the third lap and was absorbed by group-2 before 1200m was reached. As Garcia, Hawley, and Worthen hit the bell Luz Garcia had broken from the chase pack, knowing that she didn't have much time to catch the lead group.

Just after 1200m Chase Worthen (running the absolute race of her life at this point) swung around the tiring Garcia and took the lead, with Hawley covering the move as well. Garcia was tying up, and Luz was closing hard down the final backstretch. With 200 meters remaining it appeared that the race for the win was between Hawley and Worthen, as Luz still had a large gap to make up. As an opposing coach, I know I'm not supposed to pull for other team's athletes, especially when they're competing with ours for a win.. But my hat is off to Worthen who crushed the final 150m to hit the tape in 4:31 for the win. This was her first time ever under 4:40! Katie closed well also, and found the finish in 4:33.6 (PR), and Mercado grabbed the final podium spot with her 4:35 run. The quick early pace, and inexperience on this stage seemed to catch up with Denham over the final lap as she would finish 10th in her first CCAA final.

Men's 1500m: Following the 1500 conference list this spring has been pretty wild. San Marcos emerged in March with 3 men who were absolutely tearing up the track. Nick Melanese and Trevor Boaz (both frosh-eligibility) had both run between 3:46-3:49 in the month of March, and teammate Shea Vavra lowered his PR to 3:50 in April at the Clay meet. The Chico men got off to a bit of a sluggish start in the 1500, but the past 4 weeks have produced some big marks, of course led by Conor Wells who ran 3:46 at the Bryan Clay invite. Rory Abberton ran a 3:48 to win the Chico Invite, and Brian Hastings notched a 3:50 PR at our home invite as well. The top of the conference list were these six guys, all of whom had run 3:50 or faster in the regular season. To add to the excitement of the pre-race hype, Stanislaus would send out 3:51 guy Andrew Vasquez who won this race in 2019, and Pomona would add CCAA XC runner-up Vincent Sarino (3:55 pr). Chico's 4th finalist was 3:52 senior Matt Herrera who of course had spent time on the infield the day before DURING his prelim race and still managed to sprint his way into the final. I'll be honest in admitting that I woke up several times the night before this race and my mind was on how this one might play out.

Since San Marcos had several of the top 800m seeds in this final (Boaz and Melanese) we weren't sure how they might approach the tactics of this one. A 29 second first 200m split by Boaz answered all questions for our 15 guys, and an opening 400m split of 60 seconds saw a lead pack of 8-9 (including all 6 who'd run 3:46-3:50 this season) develop. A chase group formed behind, but this one was going to be an honest battle at the front that would resemble a Chico/San Marcos dual meet. Boaz towed the group through 800m in 2:02, and 1200 in 3:03.. The honest effort had the top 6 seeds well clear of the remainder of the field, and each of the 6 was in a position to potentially win the race with 250m remaining. Racing down the backstretch for the final time Chico's Wells took the front, making a bid for the title with Abberton following closely. With 200m remaining all 6 were still within striking distance, but Wells and Abberton looked full of run as they rounded the final curve. Melanese appeared the biggest threat to breaking up the 1-2 'Cats finish as the former sprinter attached to Abberton's heels heading into the final 100m. Brian Hastings also looked great over the final 200m, moving by fellow 3:50 guy Shea Vavra, and eventually nipping Boaz at the line.

At the finish Wells wasn't to be denied of his first CCAA title, as the 6th year senior hit the tape in a 3:46.1 PR. Abberton followed just 1 second behind with a 3:47.1 PR (Moving him into the #10 spot on our All Time list). Melanese would finish third in 3:48, and Hastings would take 4th in a new PR of 3:49.28! Boaz held on for a 3:49 in 5th, and 6th was a 3:50.03 PR for Vavra. Making his way through the field along the way was Chico's Herrera who nailed down a 3:54-7th place finish. What a race, and what an effort by the Chico men!

Women's 800m: The 'Cats had one woman make the 2-lap final, and that was Katie Hawley, who would be doubling back from her silver medal 1500m performance a few hours earlier. A shot at the podium would be difficult, not even considering the earlier 1500. San Marcos' Ana Mercado has run 2:09 this season, and teammate Clarissa Garcia was fresh, had a 2:10 PR and is was the defending CCAA Champion. Pomona would add 2:12 star Arissa Hatcher to the mix, and Mercado's twin Luz had a 2:15 PR going into the final. Katie's 2:17 PR is the 6th fastest in the CCAA this season and of course was done on fresh legs.

With all of these things being said, you might expect that Hawley would start the race a bit on the conservative side and slide in behind these really fast women, and try to get pulled to a PR and perhaps a top-5 finish. This was my thought as well.. but as Katie ran toward yours truly at the 200m mark, I realized that she had a sizeable lead on the field. In fact Katie hit 200m in 31.1 seconds on my watch.. Ok, let's GO!

While Katie rolled through 400m in 65 seconds, she still had 6-7 strides on the top 3 seeds, who all seemed to be keying off one another. It took around 550m for them to catch Hawley, but she didn't falter, and kept pressing through the final turn. San Marcos' Luz Mercado caught and passed Hawley just before the line relegating the junior to a well fought-for 5th place finish.

Men's 800m: The men's 800m was a bit of a rematch of the 1500m final as Wells (1:49 pr) would be up against 1:51 runners Melanese and Boaz, who were the 2nd and 3rd seeds on paper. Humboldt would send three to the line with 1:52 guy Aris Valero (fresh) leading the way. Chico would send the #7 seed to the start in Walker Doucette. The RS Frosh came in with a 1:54 PR, but has shown Much more potential in workouts. In a pre-race talk with Walker moments before taking the line I strongly told the kind hearted Doucette that he needed to believe that he belonged on the podium, and that he needed to race among the front of the field, to make that become a reality.

As the race began, both Conor and Walker shot to the front and settled a bit down the backstretch, waiting to see what others in the field were planning to do. Given that most of the top seeds were doubling, there seemed to be a hesitancy for anyone to Really make the race go from the front. As the leaders approached the bell the pace was definitely dawdling and the pack hit 400m in 58-59 seconds. San Marcos' Melanese held the lead coming off the penultimate turn but Wells began a strong push to the finish from 300m out, taking the lead down the backstretch. Following in his teammate's wake, Doucette also passed Melanese and as the field entered the final turn Chico ran in 1st and 2nd overall. Despite running on tired legs Wells ran well off the turn and into the final straight. Doucette was holding on well, but Humboldt's Valero made a hard push down the final stretch and soon passed Doucette. Thankfully Valero's final move wasn't quite enough to catch Wells, as the Chico runner hit the finish with a 1:53.1 negative split win. Aris would take the silver in 1:53.25, and Doucette would earn his podium spot with a 1:54.65 near-pr run. It's not often to have 15/8 champions, and Wells was a happy camper after this one.. But there was no matching the pure energy and joy displayed by Walker Doucette after this one. Hugs, high-fives, more hugs.. Everyone present was better off for witnessing Walker's post race celebration. It was pure joy!

Women's 5,000m: As is usually the case, there were a lot of tired legs on the line for the women's 5k. One of the only favorites who wasn't doubling back from another event was the top seed, Stanislaus' Kayden Legan, who ran 17:12 at the Bryan Clay meet 3 weeks prior. The fastest PR in the field was the 16:57 posted by 10k champ Kaela Dishion several years ago, but of course she made her seasonal debut while winning the 10k the evening before. Chico would send steeple champ Marissa D'Atri to the line, but of course she had just solo'd a massive 10:31 barrier PR several hours earlier. RS Frosh Gracie Dupuis was also one of the few top seeds who didn't have another race under her on the weekend. Hannah Ryan would double back from her silver medal 10k the evening before, along with Jaclyn Denham who'd raced the 1500 final earlier in the day. The 'Cats' final entrant was Jenny Ruiz who'd run a PR in the 1500 prelim on Friday, and doubled back on Saturday in hopes of a PR, and more championship experience.

It took several laps, but soon enough the heavy hitters occupied most of the top spots, including Legan who predictably pushed the early pace, in hopes of squeezing off those who were operating on tired legs. You'd never have known that D'Atri was doubling back from a steeplechase earlier in the afternoon, as the Chico runner shadowed Legan's every move at the front. Also looking good while operating in the top 6-7 early was Dupuis. After 5-6 laps of trailing Legan, D'Atri seemed to have had enough, and decided to up the ante for those wanting to run among the leaders. 83 second revolutions became 80, then 79, and by 3200m (11:01 split) It was just D'Atri and Legan at the front. With 1k remaining D'Atri's relentless pressing at the front developed a crack between she and her pursuer. This crack quickly turned into several strides and an 80 second penultimate lap brought the Chico runner through the metric 3 mile (12 laps) in 16:30 with the victory in hand. Marissa would cruise the final 200m while winning in a new 17:09 PR. Legan would take second some 5 seconds back and just off her PR. Speaking of PR's and podium finishes, Gracie Dupuis did some big work pulling away from all pursuers over the final 4 laps, and nabbed third place with a hard fought 17:21 time. Hannah Ryan also enjoyed a Very inspiring effort nearly matching her PR with a 6th place finish (17:39). Denham would follow in 10th place just missing her PR by less than 2 seconds (17:53 on the day). Wrapping up the action for the 'Cats in this one was Jenny Ruiz who would slice some 15 seconds off her PB with a nicely run 18:37!

Men's 5,000m: As most of you know, the men's 5k is a special race for Chico State, when it comes to the CCAA Championships. The 'Cats have stood atop of the podium in each edition since 2002, a year that Tyler Graff and teammates upset the pre-race favorites from UC Davis (yes so long ago that Davis was DII). Graff would go on to win two more crowns, giving way to younger teammate Charlie Serrano, who would also win three CCAA 5k titles during his illustrious career. By chance both Graff And Serrano (who would go on to win an NCAA title his senior year) were present on Saturday. Without giving anything away to our competing 'Cats on Saturday yours truly scheduled a pre-race meeting 35 minutes before the race to go over last minute pre-race plans, and to get them fired up for what they were stepping into. What they didn't know was that my quick talk was followed up by some inspiring words from both Graff and Serrano, who spoke to the legacy that is Chico State distance running, and what their upcoming race will mean as they move forward. What an amazing opportunity, and inspiring message to send a group of guys before they stepped into the battle with so much on the line.

The 'Cats would send 9 men to the start on Saturday.. 3 would set an early pace to help lessen the work for our top seeds, and the other 6 would attempt to crowd into the Top-8 scoring spots by the finish. Of course there was a fair amount of fire-power in the conference to contend with, but we certainly sent a capable group to the line in this one. Leading the way was Jack Emanuel who's 14:08 run at the Fanelli meet in early April leads the CCAA. Teammate Brayden McLaughlin was the #2 seed with his 14:16 PR run in the same race. Of course Brayden has gone on to run 29:29 for the 10k in his 25 lap debut. After that, the 'Cats would send Rory Abberton (14:26 PR) to the line, fresh off his 3:47 1500m PR, and Cameron Duquette (14:32 PR) fresh off his 10k win, Joshua O'Neill (14:34 PR) after his 10k, and Matt Herrera (14:35 PR) after his 6th place 1500m placing. Top contenders for the 'Cats were Leandro Candray (14:29 PR) who doubled back from the 10k, Jose Garcia, Stanislaus' 14:43 guy who was one of the few fresh contenders, and a slew of other 14:40's guys.. some who were fresh, and others who were doubling back from either 10k's or 15's earlier.

With the two top seeds having fresh legs, it made sense to create a fast pace at the front, to hopefully dispatch those who were doubled, while also making it hard for those not capable of running really fast.

Steeple champ Peter Norman began the pacing duties at the front pulling the front of the 35+ man field through early splits of 68, 69, and 67, before stepping off the track. Michael Ramirez and Bennett Woodward added a 68 fourth lap, getting the front through 1600 in 4:34. After another 68 second revolution both Chico pacers exited the track leaving Brayden and Jack to keep the pace rolling the final 3k. The 5:43 2k split certainly had the field a bit scattered, but more opposing teams' runners trailed our two leaders than our support group. That is until the third mile, when the 9:10 3200m split that Brayden and Jack hit seemed to send some folks backward and into the waiting arms of our doubling crew behind. The last of the non-Chico runners to fall from the lead pace was Stanislaus' Jose Garcia who held on for as long as he could before slowly falling off the relentless 68-69 second rhythm set by the two Chico runners. With 800m remaining the podium looked pretty clear with Jack and Brayden certainly en-route to a 1-2 finish (order tbd) and Garcia in a solid third position.. But Rory Abberton had escaped the chase pack and was slowly chipping away at the gap between himself and the Stanislaus runner (who was en-route to a new Stan State school record!). With 600m remaining yours truly debated with Charlie Serrano, Tyler Graff, and fellow alum Morgan Harrelson as to whether Rory had enough time to catch the tall Stan State runner. At the bell Abberton trailed Garcia by 5 seconds, and both looked relatively gassed. About mid-way down the backstretch Abberton hit a gear that only sub 3:50 guys have, and it became apparent that Garcia had no chance. Rory caught and passed Garcia some 50-60 meters before the line and put 2 more seconds into him before the finish, giving the 'Cats another 1-2-3 sweep in this signature event. It should be noted that the last time SF State hosted, a sweep was achieved that year as well, and in similarly dramatic fashion, as Aaron Mora split between two Pomona runners (who thought they were racing for the last podium spot) just meters before the finish.

With Garcia taking 4th, Cameron Duquette finished an incredible double with his 5th place 14:35 effort. Joshua O'Neill also finished off an awesome double with his 6th place, 14:36 (post 10k), giving the 'Cats 5 of the top-6 finishers. Matt Herrera would finish a respectable 12th in 14:47 wrapping up a stellar Chico State career and another epic CCAA 5k.