On Saturday a portion of our distance crew competed at Yuba College's Wildcat Cup track meet. Until 10 days ago our plans were to compete at Sac State's Hornet Invite, but in the days leading up to our Wildcat Invite, word got out that Sac had cancelled their meet (because "unsafe" holes in the track). For about 4-5 days we thought that there would be no alternate options for competing this past weekend, so many of our distance runners were plugged into 5k's at home, in an effort to get in an early season effort over the distance. Then we received word that a group of Community Colleges who are all coached by former Chico State track athletes had agreed to allow us into their meet. The last minute pivot to the Yuba meet (during spring break) left us with a partial squad, but those who did compete came away with some much needed race experience and quite a few seasonal best marks. From the top, a big shout-out has to go to the coaches at Yuba, Modesto, Hartnell, and Santa Rosa for taking us in on such late notice.

One of the biggest needs for our group was an early season steeplechase, so it was nice to have that opportunity at Yuba on Saturday.

Women's Steeple: We sent 3 women to the line in the steeple, and there were only 3 other women in the field, all of whom were a bit off the projected pace for our women. Marissa D'Atri would head the list of our barrier women. Marissa is the defending CCAA Champion in the steeple, is a returning All American, and ran the 3rd fastest steeple by a Wildcat ever at last year's NCAA's. Also toeing the line for the 'Cats.. Hannah Wirth (debut), and Avery Lambrite (attempting her first since the 2019 season at Sierra College).

To be quite honest this one was a rough one for our crew. Marissa thrives in competition, but struggles to stay focused as a hurdler if she's not in a competitive race. Wirth is a natural hurdler, has taken to the water jump well, but has been anemic, and is trying to actively get her iron numbers up while we work through the season. Avery is a solid hurdler, and is in the shape of her life, but for some reason her mind mixes signals as she approaches each barrier and she loses momentum, and then leaps over the barrier at the last moment, then re-engages her rhythm between the barriers. All of these issues would show themselves on Saturday, but despite the obstacles (literally and figuratively) they would take the top 3 places in the field.

Marissa had two barriers where she came to a complete stop, before backing up and hoping over (one being a water jump) and still managed to run a 10:56 NCAA provisional mark and CCAA leader. Avery had a lot of varied momentum throughout the race but still managed to hang on to run a 12:08. Hannah followed too closely to Marissa in the early going and put herself in aerobic debt and then struggled to control her water jumping and hurdling, even striking a barrier in the later stages w/ her trail leg. As I'd told the women after the run, every experience with the steeple is a good one, because it gives you more familiarity with the event. We gained some experience Saturday. the hard way.

Men's Steeple: We have 4 men that we're prepping for the steeple this year, but only two were able to contest it this weekend at the Yuba meet. Daniel Hernandez took up the steeple at the very end of the '22 season, running one to grab a spot on the Wildcat CCAA Line-up, and his next at the championships where he would finish third with a 9:20's finish time (stepping on all barriers). This year we've been working on hurdle practice with Daniel, which has gone fairly well. Unfortunately sickness derailed a big portion of his winter base training, so he's a bit behind on overall fitness. Our second steepler was Chico native Hunter Dougherty, a sophomore who's trained extremely hard to finally have a crack at the event. This would be Hunter's first 3k steeple.

As the race started, the two Chico athletes took the front and locked into a 75 second-per-lap rhythm. Trading the lead through 1600 Dougherty and Hernandez hit the 4 lap split in around 5:03. The next lap brought a defined gap between the two as Hernandez fell from the pace, and Dougherty pressed to keep the tempo in the mid 70's. Dougherty would record an impressive 9:37 debut, while also claiming his first collegiate win. Hernandez would hold on for second in 9:53.

Women's 1500m: Katie Hawley took a nice step forward this week, recording a 4:43 seasonal best, just one week removed from her 4:50 at the Wildcat Invite. Also enjoying a solid early season time was Jasmine Fletcher. The true frosh from Portland, OR brought a 4:58 HS Pr to the line, but dipped under the 4:50 mark with a very evenly run effort. Junior Gracie Dupuis would also open her 1500 season with a 4:54 effort, which was good for sixth overall.

Men's 1500m: Sophomore Brian Hastings missed a week of training about 4 weeks ago with a hamstring niggle. We're slowly bringing him back to the speedy stuff, so the 3:48 guy went into Saturday's race looking to just practice racing, and to get an effort under his belt. The race had a variety of leaders in the early going, as the pace hovered around a 65 second per lap tempo. With 300m remaining Hastings made a move to the front, and injected a sub 60 tempo, which dispatched most of the field, minus Hartnell's Esteban Deniz (3:56/14:39 pr's). Deniz did a great job of matching Brian's tempo, and with 50m remaining, took the lead back for good. Deniz would win while just cracking the 4:00 mark with a :58 closer. Hastings' 59.0 close gave him a 4:00.3 season opener.

Women's 800m: Katie Hawley won her second 800m of the short season with a front running 2:21 effort holding off Hartnell's Sofia Camacho (who'd beaten her by 1 second in the 1500 a few hours earlier). Natalie Dinin ran a savvy seasonal best 2:22, just missing second place by .2 seconds.

Men's 800m: The Chico men ran quite strong in this one as Walker Doucette and Patrick Roehling led much of the race, with a host of capable JC guys, and teammate Lionel Inhphom in tow. In the final 200m Paradise native Roehling grabbed a slight lead over his teammate Doucette. The two ran down the final straight closing quite well and finding the tape first and second overall. Lionel had a nice close in the final 150 to grab third in a 1:57.2 PR!

Women's 5000m: Gracie Dupuis would double back in the 12.5 lapper to get in a solid workout, post 1500. The plan was to lock into 6:00 per 1600 tempo, and sustain that as comfortably as possible. After trailing DeAnza's top distance gal for the initial 2-3k and unable to make her way around the surging athlete, Dupuis finally moved into the lead with an 88 second surge lap. She would record a series of 88's before closing in 86 while taking the win in 18:38.

Men's 5000m: Brian Hastings would double back in the 5k after his earlier 1500 to get in a solid workout for the day. The plan was to run 77's per lap, as evenly as possible. In a 25+ runner field Hastings began his string of 77's in the second half of the field, with plenty of folks ahead who were out faster than their eventual pace average. With each lap Hastings seemed to pass another runner or two. As he entered the final 1200 a pack of 2nd-6th places ran just 40 meters ahead which we began letting him know of. 77's became 75's and with 400m remaining Brian ran in 5th place not far behind 3rd and 4th place runners. A low 70 second close was enough to gather a 3rd place (15:51) effort and a fun workout for the Oroville native.

Next Up: The 'Cats will take a week off racing before taking on the Mike Fanelli and Stanford Invitationals at the end of the month.