I'm proud to report that our most recent So-Cal swing to the Bryan Clay Invite was a very productive one. In a season that has been altered by weather and meet cancellations, it was nice to journey to Azusa this weekend and enjoy great conditions, and talented fields. The Clay meet which was once an "overflow" meet for the Mt Sac competition just down the road, has clearly overtaken it's Walnut counterpart. This year the Clay meet produced nearly all American lead times in the distances, as well as top collegiate marks. The Wildcats rode the wave to many Pr's as well, and come home more prepared for the championship events that lie ahead. As I like to do following large multi-day meets like this, I'll post the athletes and marks below, then will quickly break down some of the action.

I'll start by sharing a quick summary of results, followed by some highlights for each day's action. 

 
Women:  
 
Marissa D'Atri (Jr): 10:16 Steeple PR (#3 AT CSUC, #3 AT CCAA, NCAA), 4:29.2 1500 PR (#5 CSUC, #2 CCAA)  
Hannah Tiffany (Fr): 16:56 5k PR (NCAA, #3 CCAA), 4:37.7 1500 PR, #5 CCAA.  
Katie Hawley (Jr): 2:14.7 800 PR (#5 CCAA) , 4:35.29 (#4 CCAA)  
Jasmine Fletcher (Fr): 17:53 5k, 4:43 1500 PR (#8 CCAA) 
Hannah Wirth (Fr): 11:19 3k Steeple PR, (#3 CCAA)  
Gracie Dupuis (So): 17:42 5k Seasonal Best, 4:54 1500 
Jennifer Ruiz (So): 18:06 5k Seasonal Best  
Jacqueline Cascione (So) 18:10 5k Seasonal Best  
Sophie Pelletier (So) 18:30 5k  
Natalie Dinen (So): 2:20 800m, 4:59 1500  
 
Men:  
 
Cameron Duquette (Sr):  29:47 10k PR, (#11 AT CSUC, NCAA)  
Jack Emanuel (Sr):  29:54 10k Season's best, NCAA Provisional  
Joshua O'Neill (So): 14:34 5k (Missed PR by .1 sec), 3:58 1500 season's best.  
Dylan White (So): 14:45 5k PR, 3:55 1500 PR.  
Anders Beil (Fr):  9:20 Steeple PR (#3 CCAA)  
Daniel Hernandez (So): 9:21 Steeple PR, 3:56 1500 PR  
Bennett Woodward (So): 3:54 1500, Seasonal Best.  
Brian Hastings (So): 1:56 800m, 3:55 1500 Seasonal Best.  
Patrick Roehling (So): 1:55 800m 
Walker Doucette (So): 1:53 800m, Season's Best.

Women's Highlights

Hannah Tiffany:
The Grass Valley native had quite a breakthrough weekend in Azusa having entered the meet with 17:32/4:55 PR's for the 5k and 1500 events. On Friday she spent the first mile working through the 5k field, catching the leaders by 3200m (10:59 PR!). Having just Pr'd substantially for the 3200m distance you might think that Hannah would be content to sit in the lead group, but that wasn't the case, as she sailed off the front of the field in the final mile, running 77 and 76 second final revolutions for the win. Her final 1600 was covered in a speedy 5:14, and the concluding 8 laps in 10:40! Hannah would double back the following day in the 1500, and with no shortage of confidence (post 5k PR) she once again surged to the lead in her heat in the final 600m. Although she would be nipped at the line by a fellow competitor, Hannah lowered her 1500 PB by nearly 20 seconds with a 4:37 run!

Marissa D'Atri:
The Martinez native has been on a roll this season, most recently producing a 16:30 5k PB at the Fanelli meet in SF two weeks ago. APU would bring a return to the steeple, her 2022 specialty event in which she earned All American honors (10:24 PR @ NCAA's). On Thursday Marissa went into the competition wanting to give the school record (10:09) a shot, but mostly wishing to run a PR and secure a second trip to the NCAA meet. Although she would fall short of the first goal she would slice an impressive 8 seconds off her PR, while lowering her #3 All Time CSUC mark to 10:16. Marissa also becomes the third fastest barrier runner in CCAA history behind Wildcat greats Alex Burkhart and McCall Habermehl. On Saturday D'Atri doubled back in the 1500 hoping to become the 'Cats 7th Sub-4:30 runner. Running in a large pack that hit the 400m mark in 71 seconds, things looked very good for her chances of accomplishing this goal. Unfortunately the front of the lead group hit the brakes in the second lap, causing the pack to slow. Sensing the potential PR would be out the window D'Atri (along with teammate Katie Hawley) swung around a massive lead group, seizing the lead with 800m remaining. The next revolution was covered in 71 seconds, and as the leaders hit the bell lap Chico ran in 1-2 overall. While Katie hit a bit of a wall in the final 200m, Marissa separated from the main group along with 1-2 other competitors. Saving a last gear for the final 100m Marissa would find the finish first, hitting the tape in 4:29.29 seconds! (Her final lap covered in 68 seconds!).

Katie Hawley:
Hawley enjoyed a very productive trip to APU this year. On Friday the San Diego native recorded a 2:14 800m PR with 65/68 second splits, despite doing much of her workouts with our distance group. On Saturday Katie doubled back in the 1500 running in the same heat as teammate Marissa D'Atri. As described above, Katie made a big move at mid race to swing around the 10 or so runners ahead of her in order to get the pace going again. In hindsight the big surge probably took some of the wind out of her sails over the final 200m, but her 4:35 final time was a season's best and just over a second off her PR. Katie is improving on a weekly basis, and looks poised to become our school's 8th sub 4:30 runner with continued consistent training.

Jasmine Fletcher:
The Portland native has been such a pleasant surprise this track season. Entering the season with HS 1500 and 3k PR's (she's from Oregon where they run these events) of 4:57/10:40, Jasmine had just run a 17:48 5k at the Fanelli meet, and a 4:49 at the Yuba College meet earlier in the season. On Friday she would just miss her 5k PB with a 17:53 (her second straight sub-18!), and doubled back on Saturday with a Big 4:43 metric mile PB. This new mark lands her among the Top-8 milers in the CCAA on the season. Onward!

Hannah Wirth:
Hannah is going to be good at this steeplechase thing. Her debut came at the Yuba meet a month ago, where she ran a disappointing 12:19 after going out at an aggressive pace for the first few laps. She would lop around 30 seconds off that time with an 11:44 run at Fanelli a few weeks ago. On Thursday the goal was to run around 6:00 pace per 1600 (11:15), which she did for nearly the entire race (5:48-4 lap split), but some slowing over the final laps left her just short of that goal. The good news is that Hannah is continuing to take steps forward and confidence is growing with each outing. Sub 11 minutes is the new goal, and CCAA's will be the target venue to pursue it! Stay tuned!

Women's 5k: Our women's 5k crew ran pretty well on Friday with Gracie Dupuis leading the way with her 17:45 effort. Dupuis' training was going very well heading into Fanelli, and then sickness struck the day of travel, wiping out nearly a week of training. Just getting back up to fitness and speed Dupuis wasn't at her best this weekend, but took a nice step forward with her 17:42 finish time. Jennifer Ruiz would run a uniform best 18:06 on Friday as the 'Cats third 5k'r on the weekend. Jacqueline Cascione would also race to a uniformed best 18:10 on Saturday. Sophie Pelletier had a tough race stepping on the rail and twisting her ankle. She would finish the race, but was some distance off her PB with an 18:30 final time.

Men's Highlights:

Cameron Duquette:
Cameron will most certainly go down as one of the great improvement stories of our program's history. With HS times of 4:40 and 10:26, Cameron wasn't on many college's radar (including ours). After stops at a variety of colleges, including his hometown MJC, Cameron ended up earning a spot on our roster. Still his 15:21 5k PR didn't scream CCAA Champion, or sub 30 10k, but these are now accomplishments that he's achieved since his arrival to CSUC. Last track season the Modesto native notched a 30:00.2 10k at Fanelli, and a 30:02 25 lapper while Winning the CCAA title. Of course running under that 30 minute barrier became a goal for Cam, and he aimed for it at this year's Fanelli meet, missing the mark mostly due to a lethargic pack behind him that seemed willing to do zero work to help the pace along. On Friday morning on a rain soaked oval Cam rolled through 5k in 14:50 looking determined to run well under the 30 minute threshold. The second half would include some slowing, but a final 5k split of 14:57 sealed the eventual 29:47 finish time. In reflection, the finish was a bit bitter sweet, as it left Cameron just 1 second from the CSUC All time list, and will most likely not be quite enough to make this year's NCAA field. Either way, a sub 30 minute 10k is certainly something to celebrate! Congrats Cameron!

Jack Emanuel:
The Chico native entered this year's Clay invite with a 29:44 10k PB that left him just short of the 2022 NCAA field. The goal in 2023 was to get under the 29:30 threshold in hopes of securing a spot to the national meet in May. The first 5k went according to plan as Jack hit the mid-way point right on 14:45. The fourth mile was covered at a similar pace, but the laps leading up to 8k brought slowing, as he was dispatched by the sub 29:30 group. Holding on the best he could over the final mile Jack hit the line disappointed with a 29:54, but knowing he'd left everything on the track. He'll rebound at CCAA's with an attempt to repeat as 5k champ.

Anders Beil:
A year ago while red shirting Anders Beil was an aspiring steepler who ran the barrier event 3 times, while cracking the 10 minute barrier just once. As I've always preached to our barrier folks, the steeple requires a certain amount of experience, and each one you race adds to that tally. This year Anders has certainly taken ownership of the event, opening up with a 9:33 PB at the Fanelli meet two weeks ago. On Thursday the Portland native (who's HS coach David Frank was an Olympic Trials qualifying steepler himself) lowered his barrier PR by another 13 seconds, recording a 9:20 PR. Perhaps the most impressive part of Anders' run was his 68 second closing circuit over the barriers and H20 jump! Look out CCAA, here comes Anders Beil!

Daniel Hernandez:
A year ago at around this same time of the season the coaching staff decided to pitch the idea of the steeplechase to Daniel Hernandez and his teammate Bennett Woodward, as the CCAA list was a bit soft at the time, and their 5k's and 15's didn't rank them especially high in those events. With little time to work with, we decided to employ the step technique instead of actual hurdling. The result was a positive one, as Woodward would take 3rd in the CCAA steeple, while Hernandez crossed in 4th in 9:25. Fast forward to this season, and it was decided to continue to work on the steeplechase, but to learn to hurdle properly. Picture tearing the engine out of a working automobile, and re-building it so that's it's stronger and faster. While the building is happening the car isn't in as good of a spot as it was with the 4 cylinder engine, but hopefully in the big picture once it's rebuilt, it'll be capable of much faster speeds. Well, our early season 9:50 while hurdling the barriers, was certainly a mid-rebuild effort for Hernandez, and Thursday's 9:21 PR shows that the new engine is starting to work well and just need some additional tweaking and breaking in. Daniel is looking forward to returning to CCAA's in a few weeks to shoot for a podium finish.

Dylan White:
After a breakout 2021/2022 year that included an All American XC finish, Dylan picked up a nagging hip injury this summer that took him out of the fall season completely. Fully healthy again, Dylan took a nice step forward at APU this weekend, recording a 14:45 5k PB, and doubling back the next day with a 3:55 PR. He now sets his sights on the CCAA 10k in a few weeks!

Joshua O'Neil:
The Trabucco Hills HS alum recorded a solid 14:34/3:58 double in consecutive days, just missing PR's at both distances. His 12.5 lapper was actually just .1 seconds off his lifetime best. Josh will now turn his attention to the CCAA 10k where he finished 6th a year ago.

Men's 1500: Sophomore Brian Hastings picked up a hamstring injury during our intrasquad meet in late February, and the subsequent missed training has left him a bit off his hoped trajectory. He would run a solid 1:56/3:55 double on the weekend, but should take some big steps forward in the coming weeks. Bennett Woodward missed 2 weeks of running and workouts in mid/late March and is just returning to form after 5-6 workouts. A 3:59 season's best at Fanelli two weeks ago was improved to 3:54 on Saturday. Dylan White and Daniel Hernandez would double back after 5k and steeple PR's with modest 15 PB's on Saturday. White improved to 3:55, while Hernandez trimmed his PR to 3:56.08.

Men's 800m: Sophomore Walker Doucette lowered his seasonal best for the 2 lapper to 1:53 on Friday, while training partner Patrick Roehling had a rare off day clocking a 1:55.

Next up: Chico Invite. On Saturday (TOMORROW) the 'Cats conclude their home racing schedule with the annual Chico Invite. Events start at 1pm and conclude a bit past 5pm. As usual expect most of the top distance runners from Chico to be placed in the 800 and 1500 events. We hope to see some of you there!