ALLENDALE, MI - Having just returned from the NCAA Championships in Allendale, Michigan, I'm happy to report that the Chico State Distance-'Cats enjoyed another standout national championship event. Four 'Cats qualified for this year's national meet, and two of them earned All American honors. A third, Conor Wells unfortunately strained a hamstring during his 1500 prelim and didn't advance to the final, and couldn't contest the 800m prelim on Friday. Overall though, it was an enjoyable and rewarding competition, and of course it was incredible to return to the NCAA track and field stage.. especially given that we'd not been there since 2019! Below I'll share our results, along with some words on each race.

Thursday May 26

All four 'Cats raced on Day-1 of competition, and each would take some extra momentum to the start lines given the early result of Chico State pole vaulter Cristian Brady who crushed his own school record, soaring over a 17' 4 bar, en-route to a 3rd place finish.

Men's 1500m:Conor Wells and Rory Abberton would kick off the 'Cats day with prelims in the men's 1500. As mentioned in last week's write-up, this year's NCAA field was by far the toughest to get into in the history of DII. The slowest of the 23 entrants had run a 3:45 to qualify during the regular season, and the fastest (Aaron Ahl of Simon Fraser is a 3:57 miler, and has a 3:39 1500 PR). Both Abberton and Wells drew the second heat, which in most cases can be an advantage, as those in the second heat can see how fast the first heat went, and know what they might need to run to grab one of the 4 time qualifiers into the final. Qualifying made simple.. Top-4 in each of the two heats would advance to Saturday's final, along with the 4 best times outside the Auto qualifiers between the two heats. This would form the 12 man final.

With the amount of fire power in both heats there was nothing to take for granted in these prelims, regardless of what your PR was coming in. Heat 1 was a bit of a mixed paced affair with most of the top guys closing with 55 or faster 400's and the fifth place finisher notched a respectable 3:47.5 time. Conor and Rory knew that if they finished inside the top-8 of their heat And beat that 3:47 mark, that they would gain a spot in the final.

Heat 2 was NOT a tactical affair as Mines' 4:00 miler Luke Julian whizzed through 400m in a very honest 57 seconds. Not wanting to concede any spots into the final, the front of the chase pack crossed 400m in 58 seconds. Conor Wells ran in 3rd position on the heels of the lead chaser. Abberton followed closely in 6th or 7th. The pace settled a bit in lap 2, but the pack still hit 800m in 2:00, with Moran leading at the front. Unfortunatley, the fast early pace did nothing to shake up the pack as 11 guys crossed 800m within a second of one another. The third lap saw Moran fall back and into the field as pre race favorite Ahl and teammate Charlie Dannatt (3:42.0 PR) seized the front heading into the final 300m. Despite hitting 1200m in 3:00 10 men ran within a stride or two of one another. Moran's impatient early pacing would catch up with him over the final 300m as he would slide backward into 10th position.. Abberton kicked hard, but no one ahead seemed to be giving an inch, with the exception of his teammate Wells, who we found out later had strained his hamstring during the first lap of the race. Dannat and Ahl would take the first two Auto spots in VERY Fast 3:42 clockings, while Rory would close well enough to seal up 8th place in his heat with a PR 3:44.6, grabbing the final small "q" into the final. Wells unfortunately couldn't close with the bad hammy and held on for 9th in the heat in 3:47, and would have to forgo his 800m prelim the following day.

To reframe Rory's heat time, and what his 3:44 prelim mark meant.. Despite finishing 8th in his prelim heat, the West Torrance HS alum (and the 7 in front of him) had broken the existing facility record, which is pretty wild considering that GVSU has hosted these championships three times previous, and none of the finals ever produced a sub 3:45. One thing was for sure, the final would be exciting and fun to watch.

Women's Steeple Prelim: Marissa D' Atri entered the championships as the #9 seed with her 10:30 PR, run while winning the CCAA title about 3 weeks prior to NCAA's. The Martinez native made it clear that she wanted to make the final, and then she wanted to become an All American. Thankfully we've got some good experience in this area (6 prior All Americans in the event), and a plan was hatched to grab one of the 12 spots into the final.

In the prelim the plan was to operate at the front in order to see all barriers and water jumps clearly, and do what would be necessary to grab a spot into the final. In studying heat 1 it was apparent that Marissa would need to run in the mid to low 10:30's to advance, while also placing well enough in her own heat of course.

It wasn't pretty, but Marissa got the job done. Hurdling and water jumps were a bit rusty (most likely in part due to our track being taken over by grad ceremony set-up) but Marissa uncorked a nice final 200m to grab the 11th of 12 positions into Friday's final. She now had 24 hours to recover, and prepare for the final, after having to run a 10:34 near-PR just to advance.

Men's 10k Final: Third year frosh (Covid) Brayden McLaughlin entered Thursday's final very thankful for the opportunity to race on the national stage. His 29:29 debut, run at the Bryan Clay Invite in April had placed him 24th on the yearly list, and didn't appear likely to make the NCAA field. After taking a few days off running following a last chance 10k attempt Brayden realized that a few guys had scratched the 10k and he had made the NCAA field after all. That was the good news. The bad news was that a VERY beefy field awaited him on Thursday.

During the last chance 10k attempt in Azusa 2 weeks before NCAA's Brayden made it through 4 miles on 29:30 pace, but then completely unravelled over the final 3200m or so. We were hoping that a deeper field, and having more on the line would help a more positive outcome to result from this final, but unfortunately after a 15:01 opening 5k, the legs once again abandoned the Del Oro HS alum. Brayden fought hard over the final 5k and didn't step off the track thankfully, and the 22nd place finish definitely stung a lot. Thankfully he's handled it well, and is using this experience as a motivator for future NCAA track races.

The race for the win in this epic battle was one to witness.. Mines' Dillon Powell used a final 3200m of 8:40! to finally seal the eventual win. 3 of the top 4 finishers are among the Top-10 in DII history for 25 laps and only GVSU's Harding graduates this year. The top 3 would also take the top spots in the 5k on Saturday as well.

Friday May 27th:

Women's Steeple Final: Coming off her 10:34 prelim run the day before, Marissa was a bit tired going into the final, and to make matters a bit worse, she appeared to be suffering from a cold. Pre-race talks centered around the fact that there would be a lot of tired legs in the final. No less than 5 women had run PR's in the prelim the day before, so at least Marissa didn't need to reach that far into the well just to make the final. A plan was hatched to go straight to the back of the pack in the final, trying to limit a fast early pace, and to secure a spot on the rail, while also allowing for a nice clear view of the barriers and water jump. It was a different tactic than the prelim, but the plan was to be patient in the back early, and then move by tiring athletes as they came back.

Marissa executed the plan to perfection, sitting in the 12th spot on the track through the initial kilometer and then moving forward through the field as opportunities presented themselves. With 300m remaining D'Atri ran in 6th place, but #'s 7/8/9 ran within several seconds just off D'Atri's heels. With 200m remaining Cedarville's Rachel Sweeney caught and passed Marissa, which forced the Chico athlete to shift gears heading into the final water jump. The two battled over the final 150m pulling each other well clear of the 9th place runner from Minnesota. Although she would lose the battle with Sweeney, Marissa and the Cedarville athlete would just pass Adams State's Sarah Willis and narrowly missed catching GVSU's Kayce Rypma. As the dust had settled Marissa would finish 7th, but places 5-8 would all finish within a half of a second of one another. Marissa's 10:24 finish time was a PR and the #3 time in CSUC history, placing her behind NCAA stars Alex Burkhart and McCall Habermehl on the school's record list. Marissa's All American finish also makes her the 7th Wildcat woman to earn this honor in the barrier event.. joining Burkhart, Habermehl, Jen James, Lyndsey Kuehn, Shannon McVannel, and Amy Schnittger. Some great company indeed, and an awesome race to earn such an honor. Friday May 27th:

Men's 1500m Final: Although he advanced into the final with the final time qualifier from the prelims, Rory Abberton stepped to the line ready to challenge for an All American finish. Yours truly also felt that this was a possibility, as the 4th year Freshman (Yes, Rory red-shirted year-1, Covid wiped out #'s 2/3, and here we are in year-4) has proven to be a savvy championship racer, and there was no denying his momentum coming into these championships.

As many of them do, the men's 15 final turned into a tactical affair as no one seemed to want to lead the second lap, and the pace slipped to a 65 second revolution. Thankfully Rory had established solid positioning early and ran among the leaders on the rail for much of the race. As the pace heated up over the third revolution, Rory adjusted to the tempo that was being set by American International's British star Calem Elson (a sub-4 miler). Just moments after the 12 man field sailed through the bell (all running within .5 seconds of Elson) disaster struck, as 3 athletes tangled and hit the deck. Thankfully Rory avoided the pile-up and as he reached the 1200m mark he ran in 3rd position, just feet off Elson's lead. Abberton (who's trained with our 15/5k group this season) predicably lost a few spots over the speedy final 200m of the race, but gamely held on down the stretch to hit the tape 6th overall. As he said after, "6th never felt so much like winning!" Despite the tactical nature of the race, Abberton still managed a 3:47 time with a 55.5 final circuit. In some ways it seemed surreal that a guy who wasn't near qualifying for NCAA's prior to the last chance meet two weeks earlier had become an All American, but then again it wasn't that hard to believe either. Rory had great momentum going into these championships, and he's a gamer. His race capped a very exciting meet, and return to NCAA track action, for the Chico crew!

Thanks to everyone for supporting Chico State Distance throughout the year. It's been such an amazing experience to re-join the NCAA and to return to the sport that we all love so much. I'm so proud of our athletes and our coaching staff for all the hard work this year, and we can't be more excited for what's ahead. To the seniors who played such an instrumental role in our return this year, Thank you! Now for some R n R and some summer fun, before taking on the 2022 XC season ahead!