A light distance crew of Wildcats return to the track after a two year absence
O'Neill, Duquette effort in the 5000m stands out

Saturday, March 5, 2022
Comments & photos by Gary Towne/Chico State Distance Coach

On Saturday the Chico State Track team ran in their first full meet in 2 years, participating in the same Kim Duyst meet that signified our only competition of the 2020 season. Since only a fraction of our distance runners even participated at the 2020 Duyst meet, Saturday was the first real track meet for many since 2019! Thank goodness we're back!

As in 2020 a good portion of the 'Cats distance roster sat out the Turlock competition, electing to open at this weekend's Aggie Open at UC Davis. Those who ran at the Duyst meet produced some solid marks, and quite a few Pr's. were enjoyed for an early season competition. I'll share some highlights below:

Men's 5K: The Chico men enjoyed a solid day of 12.5 lapping. A big Thank You, should be given out to Pro Marathon Runner CJ Albertson (Who led the first 16+ Miles of the Boston Marathon in '21) who offered to pace our top guys to their target pace, while he got in a workout in the process. Albertson, the head coach at Clovis Community College, led nearly every step of this one. Chico's #8/9 guys from the XC season Cameron Duquette and Joshua O'Neill tucked in nicely behind the metronomic Albertson who rolled to initial splits of 4:43, and 9:24. During the first mile, the pack strung out, riding the pacer's draft, but between 2-3k, only the two Chico athletes, and ARC's Gulab Singh remained on the pace. Singh was first to drop as Abberton rolled a 4:40 3rd 1600 keeping both Duquette and O'Neill on the sub 14:40 tempo. As he'd shown in our intra squad the week before, O'Neill hit a big gear with 150m remaining drawing even with Albertson off the turn and smashing the final 100m en-route to his first collegiate victory, and a big 14:34 PR (Previous PR was 14:57!). Albertson cruised in second, and Duquette held on nicely with a solid 14:38 PR (Previous best was 14:43). Fellow Wildcats Michael Ramirez and Peter Normann finished with 15:10 and 15:18 seasonal debuts. Red shirting frosh Anders Beil and Travis Selby also enjoyed solid 5k debut's running 15:17 and 15:26 times.

Women's 5K RS frosh Alexi Steinmaus, making her Wildcat track debut ran through early splits of 5:54, 11:53, and 17:51 before uncorking a :35 split over the final 200m. With the two leaders well ahead, Steinmaus won the battle for third, moving up 6-7 spots along the way. Teammate Jacqueline Cascione also recorded even splits in her first track race since 2020.

Women's 1500m: Sophomore Katie Hawley enjoyed a very convincing win on Saturday and she did it almost entirely off the front. After the early leaders took the field through in a slowish 81 split, Katie took the lead and never looked back. She recorded an evenly split 2:32 800 over the next two laps, and closed well enough to preserve the victory. RS Frosh Natalie Dinin a product of Bella Vista High, looked quite well racing to a 5:07 debut over the 1500 distance.

Men's 1500m: Sophomore Brian Hastings was boxed early in a pack that hit the brakes in the first turn. By 200m Hastings slammed on the gas and dropped a :30ish second 200m to catch an early leader from Santa Cruz. Hastings settled behind the SC runner for the following 400m before taking the lead and trying to win the race from the front. Unfortunately a combination of wind, the hard early move, And a very impressive effort by ARC's Cristian Martinez cost Hastings his first collegiate win. 800m specialist Walker Doucette followed in 13th place with a 4:11 debut over the 1500 distance.

Women's 800m: Katie Hawley completed a very impressive mid distance double with her 2nd place effort in the 800m. Perhaps even more impressive since she's currently training with the distance group and targeting the 15/5k distances this season. 400m runner Taylor Lee clocked a 2:28 for her seasonal racing debut, and teammate Natalie Dinin followed closely while doubling back from the early 1500m.

Men's 800m: Brian Hastings doubled back from the 1500 nicely with an early season 1:59 while taking 6th. 400m runner Kevin Telford stepped up to the 2 lapper nicely with a narrow miss of the 2 min barrier. Walker doubling back from the 15 looked strong with a 2:00, as did fellow frosh Patrick Roehling a Paradise HS product.

Next Up: Next up: The 'Cats head to UC Davis on Saturday with a big portion of the crew opening up their seasons. Watch for some fast 3k action as we'll be stacking most of our distance runners in the rarely offered event. A few steeplers will also make their debuts over the 2k distance. Stay tuned and thank you for your support!