Despite what your local weather forecast might say, it's actually track season already! Your Chico Wildcats have participated in two meets thus far. Last week a small group of 'Cats participated in Stanislaus' Kim Duyst Invite, while the remainder of the crew used our Wildcat Invite as their rust-buster for the season. Overall we had two solid meets despite some less than ideal weather.

Highlights from the Kim Duyst meet were:

Alex Lamoureux: The red shirting true frosh recorded a 14:46 PB, which is also one of the Top-5 fastest 5k's produced by a Wildcat true frosh. Given that Alex is currently training for the 1500/800 events, this early season 5k was a great sign of fitness.
Matthew Gordon (RS Fr): Recorded a 14:52 seasonal debut for 5k, missing his PB by just 4 seconds.
Travis Selby: The Sophomore from Nevada Union HS and son of Wildcat legend Kevin Selby enjoyed an official season PB of 14:54 in the 5k. He did run in the high 14:40's in our post- season XC TT, but that result won't show up on his TFFRS profile.
Anders Beil (So): The steeple specialist just dipped under the 15:00 threshold (14:59) in his first 12.5 lapper of the season.
Adrian Hipolito: A red shirting true frosh from Madera South won his heat of the 5k in 15:24.

On the women's side:
Sienna Bianchi and Katie Hawley recorded 4:50 and 4:54 1500m seasonal debuts. True frosh Olivia Beshorner ran her first 1500 ever in 5:10.
Bianchi would double back with a 2:22 season opener in the 800m.

Wildcat Invite:

This year's Wildcat was definitely on the breezy side as winds blew steadily from the south, with gusts occasionally topping out around 15-20mph. Thankfully, by the time the 5k's were run, the winds had calmed substantially. Quite a few of our runners did 1500/5k doubles, shooting to run a hard effort in the 15's, and then in most cases, the 5k's at 10k type intensity. Most of the Mid-D crew doubled back from the 15's with 8's.

Women's 1500m: The plan for the women's 15 was for All Americans Marissa D'Atri, and Della and Iresh Molina to create the pace at the front. We were hoping for an even 75 second effort (per lap), but of course it's much easier to say what splits you'd like to run, than it is to run them (especially when one straight is a big headwind, and the other is a tailwind). Either way, the ladies did a solid job of coming close enough, as they hit 75,79,75 splits through 1200m. This allowed the front group to stay relatively in tact (which was the hoped plan). D'Atri would close the best of the three, hitting the tape in 4:42. Della would follow less than .5 seconds back with a matching 4:42 mark. Fellow RS frosh Sienna Bianchi would close very well while notching a 4:43 PB for third, and Iresh Molina (4:44) and Katie Hawley (4:45) would give the 'Cats a 1-5 sweep. Alexi Steinmaus (4:54), Jaclyn Denham (4:56), Jasmine Fletcher (4:57), and Olivia Beshorner (5:00) would all finish among the Top-12 on the day.

Men's 1500m: With no pacemakers available to help with the wind, it would be up to top-3 seeds Alex Lamoureux (tr fr), Mario Giannini (RS Fr), and Damian Garcia (RS Fr) to keep the pace at least under the 4:00 rhythm. Alex seemed to draw the short straw in this one, as he led most of the first 800m before Giannini took the front. Despite their pressing the pace into the windy stretch, their intermediate splits were barely under a 4:00 threshold. This of course was good news to the masses behind them who tucked in, and in most cases were able to run at or close to their PR tempos throughout. Damian Garcia (1:51 800m guy) predictably would close the best of the field, hitting the tape in 3:55 (his first track race in uniform btw). Also running his uniformed debut was Giannini who would take 2nd in 3:56. Lamoureux held off Humboldt's 3:52 guy Sebastian V-Fauvel for third (3:56). Travis Selby would finish next for the 'Cats storming to his first sub 4 (3:58). Hunter Dougherty, Matthew Gordon, Adrian Hipolito, and Daniel Hernandez would all miss breaking 4 by less than a second, as the quartet all ran 4:00-point.

Women's 800m: Katie Hawley bounced back nicely after her 10 second seasonal best 1500m earlier in the day, leading the 2 lapper, wire to wire. Despite pushing into a tough headwind Katie hit 200m in 33 seconds, and never looked back, en route to a 3 second positive splitted 2:19. Training partner Sienna Bianchi doubled back nicely from the 15 as well, clocking a 2:21.6 for second place.

Men's 800m: With the winds still pushing on the backstretch, and with all entrants doubling back from earlier 1500's, the 8's became tactical, as the leaders hitting the bell in 59/60 seconds. Damian Garcia made a big move into the headwind, gapping the field (that included Humboldt's NCAA finalist and 1:49 guy Aris Houston). Just when it looked like Garcia might pull off the upset, Houston found another gear off the final turn, catching and passing Garcia with 70m remaining. Houston would win in 1:56 with Damian following less than a second back. Humboldt's 1:53 guy Dominic Ruffetto would take 3rd in 1:59.0.

Women's 5K As the men had done just moments before, the top Chico women (Iresh and Della Molina, and Marissa D'Atri) would trade the pace at the front, shooting for 85-86 second splits. Sophie Pelletier (one of the few fresh athletes in the field) would try to tuck in and hopefully get pulled to her first sub 18 minute run. Teammate Hannah Ryan would also grab a spot on the rail behind the lead trio in hopes of getting a solid workout in following her earlier 1500m.

Marissa and the Molina twins did a solid job of pacesetting at the front of the field, rolling through 1600 in 5:45, and 3200m in 11:30. As the men had done in the previous run, Chico's lead trio notched the pace down significantly over the final kilometer with Marissa taking home the eventual victory (17:42). Della Molina would take 2nd just 1 second behind, with Iresh placing 3rd in 17:44. Hannah Ryan would finish 4th in a measured 18:00, and Pelletier would manage a PB of 18:03 while insuring a Wildcat 1-5 sweep. Not a bad day in the office for the Wildcat women.

Men's 5K: The 5k for the 'Cats would be a bit of a "workout" effort, as everyone was doubling back from earlier 1500's. The plan was to have Brayden McLaughlin (14:16 PB) and Mario Giannini (14:30's PB), trading the lead for 2 miles at an even 15:00 clip, before notching the pace down over the final kilometer or so. The rest of the 'Cats could sit in on the 15:00 rhythm, or they could run their own pace. The plan worked quite well with Bray and Mario looking quite relaxed with an even 3min per K pace for nearly 4k. With a few laps remaining Brayden squeezed the pace down substantially, and the pair ran a 64 second lap from 600m out. Mario Giannini closed the best between the two (:59 final 400) and got the win in a seasonal best 14:45. Brayden followed less than a second behind. Daniel Hernandez would also dip under the 15 min mark with his 14:58 seasonal debut. Travis Selby capped a Very stout 3:58/15:00 double with a fourth place run.

Next Up: Next up: Sac State's Hornet Invite on Friday 3/15 (3k/Steeples), and Saturday 3/16 (8/15's)