Who doesn't love a championship basketball game, where two great teams are matched up against one another in a winner takes all contest. No matter how big of a run one team goes on, the other finds a way to answer, and everyone watching knows deep inside that no matter what happens during most of the game, it's going to come down to the final seconds. Whoever can handle the pressure the best late will go home victorious. I for one love these types of games, and this weekend we were fortunate enough to be a part of a championship track meet that fit this description perfectly. Cal Poly Pomona's men entered the weekend as 3 time defending champions (The 'Cats have been second each of those seasons) but in looking at this year's match-up in the days leading up to the event, things looked to be very even between the two squads. (It should be mentioned that I'm currently speaking of the men's competition. Pomona went into Champs weekend as clear favorites on the women's side, and despite the 'Cats putting up a great fight, the Bronco's would prevail as expected).

Going into the weekend Head Coach Oliver Hanf felt optimistic about the men's chances, but day's 1 and 2 brought some pretty tough setbacks including a top decathlete no marking in two of his 10 events, and Pomona sweeping the men's 10k (while we scored just a few points with a 5th place finisher). As we approached the end of day 2 Pomona seemed to be catching all the breaks, and we were scuffling a bit. That was until the men's steeple final, which served as the concluding event for Day 2. The 'Cats went into the event with the first 2 seeds, but Pomona countered with 3rd and 4th, with the 'Cats #3 being ranked 5th going in. In a quick pre-race conversation with assistant coach Scott Kruetzfeldt I projected at how big of a momentum swing the steeple could be IF we could sweep it. The barrier boys were definitely on board with this plan and executed it perfectly with Anders Beil (our #3) passing both Broncos over the final circuit, en route to a massive 1,2,3 point haul. Team scores at the end of Day 2 and going into Finals Saturday.. Pomona-87, Chico 87!

Pre Championship Day team meeting (Friday night) had great vibes and everyone was on board with supporting one another in an effort to do all that we could to bring home a title the next day.

Day 3 brought Everything that we'd imagined it would. Pomona would sweep the 110 high hurdles. The Chico men countered with a massive 1,2,3,5 run in the open 400, which drew us back even with the Broncos. With only 1 athlete (Damian Garcia) in both the 15 and the 8 finals, we needed every point Damian could conjure.. He won them both (and was later named Male runner of the meet). Pomona would go 2,4,5 in the pole vault, but the 'Cats Justin Craven (the senior who'd no marked in 2 Decathlon events in previous days) stepped up big with a 3rd place effort. In the 400 hurdles Pomona would take 2nd, but the 'Cats would counter with 3,4,6th places (all at 52-53 seconds!). As predicted the 5k would be instrumental in the outcome as it was the second to last event, and the 'Cats have a massive history in this one.. having produced the winner in each of the past 21 editions. Pomona threw all that they had into the 5, with numerous athletes doubling back from their 10k sweep on Thursday night. The 5k produced all of the fireworks that one might expect given how back and forth the meet had been thus far. Thankfully Brayden McLaughlin was able to sprint away from Stan State's Jackson Oliviera in the final 100m to give the 'Cats their 22nd straight 5k title, and in a clutch performance, Chico Sophomore Mario Giannini (who's been injured all season and was running only his second race since NCAA XC in November) moved up from nearly last at 400m to 5th by the finish. Pomona's 10k guys bounced back with 4th, 6th, and 7th places..

SO, with 1 event remaining Pomona held on to a half point advantage over the Wildcats of Chico. By this point no one reading this would be surprised to know that Chico and Pomona's relays went into the weekend ranked 1-2 in the CCAA, each having run NCAA qualifying 3:09 times this season. The winner of the relay would take home the prize. In a classic back and forth relay that saw numerous lead changes and each athlete squeezing Everything from themselves it of course came down to the anchor leg where Chico senior Vincent Rinauldi (who's been a part of 3 X CCAA runner-up teams) took the handoff with a fraction of a second lead over his Pomona competitor. The Bronco made a move for the win on the backstretch but Renauldi eased in behind him, almost as if he'd bated him into leading over the final turn. The Pomona athlete obliged and as the pair exited the final bend Vincent began to swing wide to create a path to the finish. The pass was made in front of a frenzied Chico crowd (myself included) on the final straight and Renauldi would cross the tape with one arm raised pointing the baton skyward, having secured the team title by a quarter of a second. After all of those competitions within the competition, the margin of victory came down to a fraction of a second. The Chico crowd sprinted from all directions to the finish and one of the most pure and exciting celebrations that this coach can remember. Distance runners hugging throwers, and everything in between. What a track meet!

As usual I'll do my best below to capture some of the awesome performances the distance crew produced, including producing 7 individual champions between the 10 distance finals.

THURSDAY EVENING:

1500 Prelims::
Women: In what has been by far the deepest CCAA years in the mid distances, the 'Cats moved all three women through to the final. Della Molina, Kaya Scuba and Sienna Bianchi all secured auto spots into the final with strong finishes, setting up one of the best 15 finals in recent history.

Men: Top seeded Damian Garcia was our lone entrant in the men's 1500 and he would win a very tight heat (top-5 finished within 1 second) while advancing to the final.

Women's 10k Final: The Wildcats went to the line in the women's 10k with heavy favorite Iresh Molina (34:0's PR) leading the charge. Sophomore Megan Malloy owned around the 8th best 10k of the field and Sophie Pelletier (senior) was the defending 6th place finisher (but her PR ranked outside the Top-10 this year). The plan going into this one was to have Iresh run among the leaders for 8-9k, before securing the victory over the final mile. With everyone in the field content to key off Molina, yours truly was able to give Iresh instructions each lap that might help her teammate's chances behind. Iresh seemed to enjoy this as she looked for instructions with each passing lap, and would spend the next revolution trying to nail the desired pace. With Iresh's threshold pace being around 85 seconds per lap, the 88's that were being run for much of the race were pretty easy for her.

With Iresh driving the bus at the front of the race the lead pack had narrowed down to 10 by the half way point, and all three 'Cats were still attached. At times Sophie (who was a bit under the weather on race-day) appeared to be on the ropes, so we'd make sure Iresh didn't pick up the pace in those moments.

Within the final 3200m Pomona's sub 17 5k gal Jade Kingston took the lead and threw in a big surge, blowing up the lead pack. Iresh covered the move, as did Stan's sub 17 gal Jacqueline Sanchez. Megan Malloy was cast astray, but was holding strong in 4th position at 8k. The question now was when to turn Iresh loose, and what might help Megan's chances of grabbing a podium spot? With a mile remaining Iresh was given the green light to make her move to eventual victory. Kingston surged but was unable to match Iresh's acceleration. Stan's Sanchez held on to 3rd position just off Kingston, but she did look to be showing signs of fatigue.

As Iresh sailed to an easy victory, a race inside the race began to evolve over the final 2 laps. Sensing that Stan's Sanchez was coming back to her Megan Malloy threw in a big penultimate lap, catching third place with a lap to go. Megan's sub 80 final lap was no match for the Stan runner, and the 'Cats would place 2 on the podium. Unfortunately Pelletier was never quite able to quite move into the top-8 (scoring places) and would finish 10th.

Men's 10k Final: The Wildcat men were unusually short-handed in the 25 lapper this year. Last year's 10k champ Dylan White was in the shape of his life in February winning our team's intra-squad 3200 in the Cardinal and White, but an achiles injury took him out of running through all of March. April offered some mileage, but not a lot. Dylan would toe the line this year, and was capable of scoring, But he wasn't in the shape to counter Pomona's 4 fast guys at the front. To add to the 'Cats woes, our #2 runner at this fall's NCAA Champs Matthew Gordon was out for the season with a sports hernia. A February surgery repair was successful, but he's just returning to light running, and wouldn't be able to run CCAA's. Most of our hopes rested on the shoulders of JC Transfer Jesus Villarreal, who ran 30:34 last spring while red shirting, and had run a sub 14:30 5k earlier this season. Unfortunately Jesus came down with some sort of sickness the week before CCAA's and was unable to do the last big session before the race. Pomona would counter with 4 guys who had either run 30:25 or 14:22 or faster for the 10k/5k (basically the core of their distance team).

Knowing that they would be needed for double duty (5k on Saturday) the Pomona quartet sat in the lead pack almost hoping that the early pace wouldn't be very fast. Their wish was granted as the lead pack reached 5k in a pedestrian 16:12 split. Monterey Bay's 14:24 guy Jaime Gonzalez made the first "move" dropping a 74 lap to the 6k mark. This surge narrowed the lead pack to 10, with both Wildcats safely aboard. Several laps later Pomona's crew went into attack mode as Daniel Echeveste dropped a 70 second lap. Pomona now ran in 1-4 positions with Jesus safely attached, as well as Monterey Bay's Gonzalez. The surge in pace dispatched Dylan White and seemingly triggered a recurring heart issue that unfortunately took him out of scoring contention. During the penultimate lap the lead group shed Pomona's Ricardo Vargas, leaving 5 men to duke it out over the final revolution. Although he fought the best he could, Jesus' 65 (final lap split) fell short of the 58-61 second final revolutions that each of the eventual top-4 would produce. To make matters worse Monterey Bay's Gonzalez was overhauled just before the line by Zavaletta, giving the Bronco's a 1-3 sweep of the podium spots (and all the team points that go along with it). Not the greatest close to Day-1 for the 'Cats, but it could have been worse.

FRIDAY:
Women's 800 Prelims: The Wildcat women went into the weekend ranked 6th, 8th and 12th on the yearly performance list, so we knew it was a long-shot to get all three into the final.

Sidney Garcia would secure an auto spot in the final with a second place finish in her heat behind NCAA Mile champ Annie Wild (Stan). Kaya Scuba would grab the first of 2, time qualifiers with the fastest third place finish between the three heats, nabbing a spot in the final. Sienna Bianchi would just miss the final by a half of a second, finishing 10th in the prelims (all heats combined).

Men's 800 Prelim: Chico's lone 800 entrant Damian Garcia made easy work of his heat, winning and advancing to the final with a strong final 200m surge.

Women's Steeplechase: A year ago school record holder and multiple time All American Marissa D'Atri won her 3rd straight CCAA steeple title, giving the 'Cats 8 crowns in a row. As we trekked home from CCAA's last year my mind turned to what it would take to keep this streak going. We literally had no one who'd run the steeple before returning, and it was sort of accepted that this winning streak would be a tough one to keep going, minus the quick emergence of a freshman phenom. Enter Olivia Beschorner.

Olivia walked onto our team in the fall of 2023 and by all accounts was at or near the bottom of our XC rank-order list. She red shirted both sports, and did some hurdling with our steeple crew in the spring. Water jumps were a bit of a liability, so we decided to just stick to the hurdle practice and limit the chance of injury, and perhaps it could be an event to contest the following year. Fast forward to Spring 2025. We started from scratch again with the hurdling, and spent some quality time with dry-ground water jump training, and thankfully it all began to click. Add a great summer of training with the crew up in Mammoth Lakes, and you had a much stronger Olivia, And one that could hurdle and water jump with the best of them. Now we needed experience.

Sac State Invite= 11:32 debut (solid!).. SF State= 11:07 (solid). LaVerne Inv.= 10:57! Now we're talking!

Entering CCAA's Olivia was ranked 4th on paper, but all 4 conference leaders went into the big day with PB's in the 10:50's.

Before going any further on the race for the title, I have to add that we have another gal who's going to be VERY good at the steeple, and that's Zoe Aitken. Zoe is tall, athletic (played numerous sports in HS), and is one of our best water jumpers to do it in my time here. Unfortunately for the Lodi HS alum, she's had a series of heart events in her year with us, and we're trying to get a handle on what's happening exactly. In her steeple debut in Sacramento Zoe looked great through 1600, and by 2k collapsed to the track with a high heart rate and associated issues. She's been seeing doctors and a Cardiologist, and is currently wearing a device that tracks and records her heart's rhythms. She was cleared recently to resume training and racing, and in her second steeple, she made our conference team with an 11:26 run in Laverne. Unfortunately for Zoe, heat seems to be a triggering factor with her issues, and it was a bit on the hot side for the barrier finals on Friday. Zoe was running a masterful race, operating inside the top 7 at 4 laps, before her body began to make things hard on her. She would lose places over the final laps, but was able to finish. She was quickly taken by the trainers to their on site training facilities where she spent the next hour being evaluated by EMT's and other professionals. Thankfully she recovered and didn't require a trip to the hospital. Fingers crossed we can get these issues figured out so she can return to competition.

Getting back to the race. With conditions on the hot side, and a pretty steady North wind blowing Olivia ran among the top 6-7 for the initial 2-3 laps, before joining the lead group. At 1600 I can't say that anyone among the leaders looked especially well, as the heat and the pressures of a tight race seemed to be weighing on all of them. Pomona had two of the top-4 seeds coming in (including the #1 seed) and SF State's Daisy Salinas (also a sub 11 runner) ran among the pack.

The lead group that was 5-6 strong ran from 1k-2k mostly together, but each time they hit the water barrier Beshorner would literally put a second or two on everyone, before the pack would inevitably re-gather for another hard lap.

With 3 laps remaining in the race Olivia led, recording a 90 second revolution. Only Daisy Salinas and Galelea Jimenez (Pomona) were able to keep this pace. Sensing that she had her opposition on the ropes and feeling the pull of the finish Olivia covered the next lap in 87 seconds. Jiminez and Salinas each ran high 88's and Bechorner hit the bell with a slight gap, but growing confidence and momentum. Any questions as to who would win this year's title were answered with Olivia's 78 second closer, which blew out the field. Salinas covered the final lap in 85 seconds, while the Pomona standout held on with a 90 second close for third.

My first text in the moments after Olivia had crossed the line went out to Marissa D'Atri, letting her know that Olivia had kept the streak alive. That's 8 in a row for the Wildcat steeple ladies, and 11/12 dating back to Amy Schnitger's 3 year run that started in 2011!

Men's Steeplechase: As mentioned in the opening meet summary the men's steeple played a pivotal role in our men's team's eventual title. With the team down on their luck in the first two days we REALLY needed a boost. The steeple guys (Hunter Dougherty-SR, Adrian Hippolito-Fr, and Anders Beil-Jr) were here for it. I can say that this trio stepped to the line wanting nothing more than a sweep, and feeling confident in their chances, despite the fact that Pomona sent two qualified veterans of the event (both 9:10-9:11 guys) to the line.

Our plan was to send Hunter Dougherty (8:51 PB and defending champ) to the front to create an honest but manageable early pace (which was 72/73 per lap, given the heat and wind). We figured Pomona's Chris Razzo and Evan Franco would most likely follow Dougherty closely. Adrian Hippolito (Frosh with 9:07 PB) would mark the Pomona duo, and Anders Beil would try to hang close enough to hopefully outkick tiring Pomona guys over the final 400m (Anders has unmatched closing speed in the barrier race).

For the most part, the race went almost exactly to plan, except the Pomona guys were not biting on Dougherty's pace at the front. They slowly allowed the defending champ to run away with his second title in as many years.

The Bronco pair worked together and at times threw surges in an attempt to rid themselves of Hipolito, but Adrian was having none of that. Thankfully the pace was perfect in allowing Beil to stay close, while easily pulling away from the rest of the field.

With 800m remaining Dougherty ran alone at the front, and Razo, Franco and Hipolito remained locked in a battle for second. Beil though was only 3 seconds back and looked in control of his running. With 700m remaining Franco took a barrier awkwardly and lost a few steps on his teammate and Hipolito. He was on his way backward. As Hipolito passed by yours truly he was already celebrating an eventual second place finish as he smiled and pointed at the Chico fans who'd fired up the Chiccoooo chant. Adrian made his move from the penultimate water jump to the bell, reaching the lap-to-go mark 2 seconds ahead of Razzo. By this point Beil had already passed Franco and at the bell the 'Cats ran 1,2,4 and Beil was only 2 seconds behind Razzo. Beil's 64 second close was a dagger to Razzo as he could only muster a 74 for the final revolution. Dougherty hit the finish and immediately turned to give a giant bear hug to Hipolito as he crossed in second, and then the pair screamed at Anders as he sailed through the finish in third, narrowly missing his 9:20 PR. What a momentum-builder this was, and as mentioned previously the team score sat tied between the 'Cats and Broncos heading into Day 3.

A few more fun-facts regarding the men's steeple, as we have a STRONG tradition in this one as well. The Chico men have now won 18 of the past 21 CCAA steeplechase races, dating back to 2003 when Tim Tollefson won his first of 3 titles. What a run it's been!

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY:

Women's 1500m: The Wildcats would send 3 women to the line in the 1500 this year. As mentioned previously the 15 is very deep this year in the CCAA and despite the fact that all 3 of our women had run between 4:31-4:32 during the regular season, we were ranked only 3rd, 6th and 7th going into the meet. Stan State's defending champ Annie Wild had Won the NCAA Indoor mile this march (4:39 full mile!) and stood as a huge favorite in this one, having run just under 4:20 this outdoor season for the 1500. Pomona's Vivian Martinez was ranked 2nd in 4:29, and then there were a lot of others who'd run in the low to mid 4:30's.

The plan for the Chico women was to Not bite on a potentially hot early lap by Wild, but then again, not allow her to run completely away either. An honest pace would most likely serve us best as the women entered the weekend with good momentum.

As almost expected Wild hammered the first lap, reaching 400m in a speedy 68 seconds. Martinez decided to join the Stan star as she also covered the opening lap in 68 seconds. Della Molina followed in third with a slight gap on the chase pack, who were probably closer to 73 seconds. Wild told the field with her running that she wasn't messing around as she hit 800m in 2:17-2:18. Realizing this wasn't sustainable, Martinez detached from the lead and now ran alone in second. Della ran in third, with teammates Bianchi and Scuba operating in a deteriorating chase pack.

Over the third lap Bianchi surged and Scuba followed. They were quickly separated from the main group, and by the bell Della ran in 3rd with teammates Scuba and Bianchi 1 second back in 4th and 5th. All three 'Cats closed well with Kaya Scuba having the biggest finishing lap of the three. In fact Scuba caught and passed a tiring Martinez in the final 100m, but the Pomona star would fight back enough to claim 2nd place at the line. Scuba's 68 second final lap would nab her a first All CCAA honor (and a PR!), while Della finished just behind in 4th. Bianchi would cross just .2 seconds back, giving the 'Cats 3 of the top-5 finishers. Another impressive note was that all three ran within a second of their PR's with 4:31-4:32 finish times respectively!

Men's 1500m: On paper the men's 1500 may have looked like an easy one for Chico's standout Damian Garcia, who's 3:42.01 PR was some 4 seconds faster than his closest competitor. Of course there's always more to the story though. Number two seed Nick Melanese (San Marcos) had won the CCAA 15/8 double two years ago and is a 1:48/3:46 guy. Teammate Sankalp Shastri had outkicked Garcia for the CCAA title a year ago, (while Melanese was injured). Also to be factored in, was the fact that we Really needed Damian to score some big points in the 800 later in the day, so a hard solo effort from the front would certainly hurt his chances 90 minutes later in the two lapper. Although we were confident in Damian's chances in a last lap kick, it was decided that a longer push from home from inside the final 800m would provide the best chances for success. The thought was to run the penultimate lap around 60 seconds, and then the final one as fast as needed to get the win. Damian ran this strategy to perfection, and thankfully the conditions were perfect (no real winds) to help his chances.

Pomona's pair of entrants took the field through an honest first lap, which was welcomed, as the leaders hit 400m in 61 seconds. The pair slowed in the second lap hitting 800m closer to 2:05. Damian made his move to the front down the straight-away, and by 600m to-go Melanese ran on his heels in second, with teammate Shastri in third. The two Pomona guys latched on the best they could, but Damian's 59 second penultimate lap was only covered by the two San Marcos athletes. With 200m remaining Damian still led, and Melanese appeared ready to make a move to try to pass on the final straight. Damian's continued squeeze was too much though, and as they entered the final straight Melanese's back had tightened and he was no longer accelerating as Damian was. A 57.1 final circuit gave Damian his first CCAA title (in his hometown btw!). Last year's runner-up Sankalp nipped his teammate Melenese at the line. Pomona would take 4/5 spots to lessen the team scoring blow.

Women's 800m: The Wildcats would send 2 to the line in the women's 8, Sidney Garcia and Kaya Scuba. Scuba was doubling back from her podium 15 finish just 90 minutes earlier, and Garcia was relatively fresh having run a 2:14 prelim the day before. The goal was for Sidney to challenge for a top-4 spot, as each of the top-3 had run under 2:10 this season, and looked very difficult on paper to break up. Kaya was a time qualifier for the final and was running her 4th race in 3 days, so the goal with her was to beat as many folks as possible, taking what the legs are giving on the day.

Surprisingly the race went out tactically, and Sidney had horrible positioning at the bell, running in 7th or 8th place in 69 seconds. Predictably everyone surged in the next 200m and our women struggled to make much progress toward the front. Kaya's 68/66 splits nabbed her a 6th place 2:15.2 finish, with Garcia following a fraction of a second behind in 7th. Not a bad run for Scuba given that her seasonal best is 2:14 and she was running on tired legs. A bit of a tough go for Sidney who just wasn't able to insert herself into the mix.

Men's 800m: A year ago after having taken 2nd in the 1500 Damian doubled back with a tough 8th place run in the 800m. This year, having run 1:49 a few weeks prior, and being much stronger overall, Damian was very confident in a much more positive result. The plan was to try to gain good positioning by 400m, so over the course of the final lap, Damian wouldn't have to try to pass the entire field to have a shot at winning. San Marcos had no less than 5 men in the 8 final, and it was nearly expected that they would hit the front hard, making things honest. This was indeed the case as SM's Braden Olberg (7th a year ago) looked quite strong leading at the bell with a 54.8 400m split. Damian hit the bell in 55.5 in fourth, and looked ready for the second lap.

As the field raced down the backstretch for the final time Oberg had about a second lead on the pack, and Damian slowly made his way past San Marcos' 2/3 runners, (Including Melanese, who he'd battled earlier in the 1500). With 100m remaining Damian ran just a stride behind Oberg, and as he raced by the screaming Chico fans he made the pass into first. With a 54.5 second closing split Damian secured the win and nearly broke 1:50 for the second time this season (1:50.15 winning time). With no Pomona men in the final, this was a nice 10-0 point swing in favor of the 'Cats in the team race!

Women's 5,000m: Chico would send 4 women to the line in hopes of scoring in the 5k on Saturday. Temperatures were a bit on the high side (mid to upper '70's), and all but one of our women were coming off previous racing in the meet. Della and Iresh Molina stepped to the line as pretty heavy favorites on paper as their 16:17/16:21 PR's were at least 20 seconds faster than their nearest competitor. Iresh was doubling back from winning the 10k two days before, and Della had run a 1500 prelim and final in the days/hours leading up to the 5k. Megan Malloy (ranked 11th on the yearly form-chart) doubled back from her podium 10k finish, and Jasmine Fletcher came in ranked 7th, but was operating with fresh legs.

To take some of the pressure off the twins at the front, we solicited the help of Sophie Pelletier who was bouncing back from a tough 10k on Thursday. We hoped Sophie could provide 84-85 second laps for a mile or 2k, but she made it closer to 3k before stepping off the track. Now Della Molina took the lead trying to keep the pace honest enough to get rid of Pomona's Vivian Martinez and Stan's Jacqueline Sanchez.

It wasn't easy but the twins worked together and eventually rid themselves of Sanchez. Unfortunately the pace wasn't quite fast enough to dispatch Martinez, at least not until Iresh took the front and gradually pulled away from her sister and the Pomona star. Unfortunately Della began to have some stomach issues over the final 1k, literally dry heaving as she ran and she was soon unable to keep pace with Martinez.

With Vivian having the fastest 15 speed in the field the last 800 was a bit nerve-wracking. At 800m to go, Iresh had a 1 second buffer over Martinez and Della. Iresh ran 80.08 for the penultimate lap, while Martinez kept it close with an 80.6 of her own. Della's 83 (while dealing with the stomach issues) moved her into third. Thankfully Iresh had some kick saved, as she closed very well (72.8) while Martinez chased but was unable to catch her (73.1 close) in second. Della held on valiantly for third. Doing some Incredible work were the next two 'Cats as Megan Malloy recorded the third fastest close of the race (76) to take 5th overall. Jasmine Fletcher would take 6th, giving the 'Cats 4 of the top 6 and a nice scoring boost for the Chico women!

Men's 5,000m: As everyone knows, the 5k is the next to last event of the meet. Only the relay remains after. The 'Cats went into the 5k down to Pomona by 4-5 points (I'm unable to remember exactly), but the 'Cats had defending champ Brayden McLaughlin, as well as recent 14:15 performer Travis Selby, and 2024 5k runner-up Mario Giannini stepping to the line. Pomona had all of their talented 10k guys returning, knowing that they HAD to score some points in order to have any chance in the team race. Jesus Villarreal also returned from the 10k for the 'Cats, but he would be a non-factor unfortunately.

In past years much of the battle in the front has been almost a dual meet between Chico and Pomona, but this year was different with the emergence of two Stanislaus runners, frosh Jackson Oliveira, and Dominic Robles, who'd recently ran 14:15 and 14:18 at the Bryan Clay Invitational.

With all of the Pomona guys doubling back, it was important to create a pace at the front that would make things honest enough to remind them of that 10k. As we've done in the past, we employed some pacing from our steeplechase crew to keep the tempo at the front at a 69-70 second clip.

As he's done each of the past several years Anders Beil ran the first 1600m in around 4:35 and along the way there were some gaps among the leaders, but by 2k Adrian Hipolito had a sizeable lead pack following him at around a 70.0 pace per revolution. Sometimes races come together just how you might plan, but this certainly wasn't one of those races for our crew. Mario Giannini (who's run at the most 35-40 miles in a week all season due to injury) started at the back of the field, and was never really attached to the front group. Travis Selby, the #3 seed on paper and fresh, coming in, didn't look great and cracked by the 3k mark. Jesus Villarreal didn't bounce back from the 10k well, and stepped off the track before 3k. Meanwhile Pomona was battling hard, knowing their title hopes depended on it.

After all pacers had stepped off the track (at 3200) the leader was Robles of Stanislaus who'd carved a 2 second advantage over a chasing Mclaughlin, Oliveira, and Pomona's Echeveste. Mario followed some 4 seconds back, battling a small group of Pomona guys.

With 800m remaining Robles led a 3 man pack that included teammate Oliveira, and Chico's McLaughlin. Echeveste followed 1 second behind, but a slight gap had formed. The front trio covered the penultimate lap in 68 seconds as Oliveira now held the lead at the bell with Brayden in second, and Robles in third just a fraction of a second from the front. Brayden took the lead as the trio hit the backstretch and increased the tempo running the penultimate 200m in 32 seconds with Oliveira hot on his heels. Thankfully Brayden held one last gear in his back packet that he pulled out in a BIG way down the final stretch while scorching the final 100m. His turnover was so quick that Brayden appeared to nearly stumble the final 20m, but thankfully stayed on his feet to record a 1 second victory (while nabbing the uber-important 10 points that go with it). Mario Giannini did some magnificent work over the final laps as well, securing a fifth place finish with a strong 63 second close. It wasn't pretty, but the guys got the job done.. Brayden extends our CCAA 5k win streak to 22 years!.. The 4 points we gained over Pomona in the 5k drew our men's team to within a half point of Pomona, thus setting the stage that we all "knew" was coming with the relay.

What an amazing meet it was. We certainly had our ups and downs, but I'm incredibly proud of our team, and all that they put into making this meet one of the most memorable track experiences of my life.

All told we finished the weekend with 12 ALL CCAA Awards between the group, and we return all but two of our distance runners who raced this weekend.

Next up: APU Last Chance meet this weekend (Fri/Sat).

With NCAA's taking place in Pueblo, CO (at altitude) we're already starting to send NCAA qualified athletes to CO to get acclimated. Hunter Dougherty will skip last chance and is already in CO with lots of help from CSUC alum Kara Lubieniecki and and Alex McGuirk, who are hosting him in the Boulder area. A second crew will depart early next week (after finishing finals early).