I'm extremely proud to announce that Both Chico State track and field squads return from San Marcos as CCAA Team Champions. The men back up last year's nail-biting title with a much less stressful victory over Pomona, while the women almost re-created the men's '25 drama with the same Bronco squad. Although points came from every corner of the Wildcat roster for both victories, I'm proud that both men's and women's distance squads produced 99 point totals that helped secure the two trophies. The women's 5k was especially impactful as the 'Cats were down by 27 points with just 2 events remaining (5k and 1600 relay). The 12.5 lap ladies hogged the top 5 spots, and 7 of the scoring 8 to give the mile relay ladies some breathing room for our first title since 2017. Also I'm pleased to announce that Mario Giannini won the men's 5k, extending our ridiculous winning streak to 23 years in that event. Overall it was another incredible championship experience that reminds this coach that it's truly special to be a part of this Wildcat Family. Please follow along below for some day-to-day highlights of the action.

DAY 1 (Thursday)
Women's 1500 Prelims:
The 'Cats sent 4 to the line in the 1500, Kaya Scuba (3rd in 2025), Sienna Bianchi (4:27 PR and #1 seed), Paulina Martins (True frosh making her CCAA debut), and Catherine McGuire (CCAA debut running in just her 2nd ever track season!).

All four Wildcat women would advance to Saturday's 12 person final. Kaya Scuba gave us a small scare as she was edged at the line by a Monterey Bay athlete who nabbed the final auto spot (in heat 1) to the final. Thankfully Kaya's 4:40 time was the first of 4 time qualifiers to make the final. Onward to Saturday for this quartet!

Men's 1500 prelim:
Defending CCAA Champ Damian Garcia was paired with teammate Alex Lamoureux in heat 1 of the 1500. This was Lamoureux' first CCAA meet (so) and their heat had some solid 800m guys in it, so Damian and Alex traded the early laps at an honest-enough clip to whittle the field down by 800m, while deadening the kick of some of their opponents. Alex looked nothing like a rookie in this one, taking the lead along the way and cruising in with Damian (and two others) with a 61 last lap, that had purposeful slowing over the final 50 meters. Alex suddenly looked like a podium threat!

Women's 10k Final:
Part of the fun of championship racing is developing plans that help the team's chances of scoring the maximum amount of points toward a title chase. Of course employing a successful plan is helped greatly if you have some stellar athletes who are willing to work together with one another, while putting aside personal time goals. Thankfully our squad was one hundred percent bought-in this weekend.

The Wildcats would send 3 NCAA provisional qualifiers to the line in Iresh Molina (defending champ and school record holder), Megan Malloy (headed to NCAA's in 3 weeks in the event), Kira Forsberg (35:14 PR), and a 10k rookie in Jasmine Fletcher. Jasmine's 17:14 5k wasn't ranked high enough to earn her an auto spot onto our CCAA roster, so we pitched the idea of the 10k to her the week before the championships. The three-time CCAA scorer (between 1500/5k) in previous years, jumped at the chance to score for the 'Cats (note that she's also a graduating senior). We also had plans of entering Della Molina, but a last minute injury before declarations forced us to bump her into Saturday's 5k, which allowed for a few more days of recovery.

Going into the race we knew that we had a great opportunity to score big points. The 'Cats had the top 3 seeds in Iresh, Megan and Kira, and Jasmine's 5k aligned pretty closely with San Marcos' 35:40's 10k gal Angela McManus. The goal was to put all 4 into the top 5 and hopefully if all went REALLY well, maybe a 1-4 sweep would be possible?

The plan (similar to a year ago) was to have Iresh and a few teammates create a pace at the front that was fast enough to rid themselves of the entire field by 5k-6k hopefully, and then they would go to work on trying to beat McManus. Eighty eight second laps was the goal, and Kira, Iresh and Megan did a great job of keeping the pace right on that tempo for a good portion of the run. The field was content to sit on the 'Cats for around 2k before McManus became impatient and took off the front. Having planned for this possibility I assured the ladies before the race that they'd be close enough to McManus late in the race to still run her down if needed. McManus' tactic ended up working Very well for our top goal, as she spent nearly 3 miles circling the track alone in the front (never getting more than 50m ahead of our group) while the Chico women worked together at an even clip. It should be noted that the rest of the competition had fallen off the Chico quartet by 5k, which left four Chico women working together, and San Marcos' lone leader at the front of the race.

By the fourth mile McManus was clearly tiring and within several laps she was absorbed by the Chico group. She spent a few laps working hard to operate with our group, but the early efforts clearly put a dent in her legs, and soon the Chico women had dropped the San Marcos star, tagging a second or two with each passing revolution. The final mile was more or less a victory celebration for the 'Cats as they cruised in, minus Megan's contesting Iresh for the win, which was pretty easily dispatched by the 33:38 10k runner, who closed in 69 seconds for the final lap! Megan would take second, while Forsberg gave the 'Cats the podium sweep. Jasmine's 10k debut was a successful one, landing her the 4th place finish and a 36:46 finish time. As the women's team eyed the possibility of a team title the 29 points scored in the 10k was a Nice start!

Men's 10k Final:
A year ago the Cal Poly Pomona 10k men Really took it to the Wildcat men sweeping the podium spots and outscoring the 'Cats 27-4. A year later CPP returned the top two from last year's podium in Thomas McDonell and Daniel Echeveste, but a lack of race results from early this season suggested that each had been dealing with injuries. The 'Cats would counter Pomona's top runners with Jesus Villarreal (5th in '25 10k, and the top seed this year), Sergio Cuartas (30:20's PB) and Sean Alliegro (30:06 PR). This would be Sean and Sergio's first CCAA track experience. Another threat to the podium would be San Marcos' Alan Jimenez who qualified for NCAA's individually this XC season, and boasts some solid track PR's across the board (3:50, 14:28, 30:12).

Knowing that the Pomona duo of McDonell and Echeveste were most likely a bit behind on fitness, the plan was to create a pace that wasn't all out, but also wasn't jogging. Pre-race meetings finalized a goal of hitting 5k around 15:30 and then notching things down to the finish. This should keep our group together, while hopefully taking the wind out of the sails of most of our opponents, and lessening potential fast closes from the Pomona guys.

The plan worked VERY well for 24 of the 25 laps (haha).. Sean, Sergio, and Jesus switched the front running duties throughout a 15:26ish first 5k and the trio looked great. The early pace was fast enough to whittle the lead group down to 6-7 by 5k. The fourth mile brought some stretching of the lead group, and as Sergio and Sean started dropping 72 and 71 second laps leading into 6k the once defined group began to fragment. Unfortunately, Jesus' stomach wasn't doing well and he fell from the pace, but so had McDonnell. Echeveste is known for holding on until he can't any longer, and then Really struggling home. Today this would be the case, as he managed to stay on the heels of the Chico pair the longest, but when he began to go backward, Jesus was quick to sweep him up.

Sean and Sergio rattled off 71 to 72 laps consistently through 8k hitting the metric 5 mile in 24:29 (6 seconds ahead of McDonnell). With 1200m remaining Allegro and Sergio enjoyed their largest lead of the race as the pair had an 8 second cushion over the defending champ. McDonnell would pull 2 seconds back over the next lap, and a 69 second penultimate circuit had the Pomona star smelling blood in the water. After all of that leading it was extremely hard watching McDonnell sweeping by Sean and Sergio, but his 61 second close was an impressive finish for the Pomona senior. Sergio would hit the tape second, while Sean would earn his first All CCAA honor with a hard fought 3rd place finish. Jesus would hold on nicely placing 4th, giving the 'Cats 4 valuable team points. Echeveste would end up 6th in 30:59. This one didn't go quite to script, but the 'Cats did enjoy the 19-13 point win over their conference rivals this year. Onward to day 2!

Day 2 (Friday)
Women's 800 Prelims: Given the depth of quality two lappers in the CCAA these days Sienna Bianchi (2:13 PR) was our lone entrant. The Sanger HS alumna ended the regular season ranked 10th on the conference form-chart, so she would have some work to do in order to make the 8 person final. A spot in the final does guarantee at least 1 team point, so it made sense to plug Sienna into the prelim, hoping she could nab a spot on the line for Saturday's final. With only the winner of each heat (4 heats) and the next 4 fastest times advancing.. the margin for error was small. With Pomona's Arissa Hatcher (2:07 PR) in her heat, the goal for Sienna was to try to run a fast race, while finishing in the top 2. As her heat approached 200m Hatcher was out Really fast as Sienna crossed 200m in 30 seconds while running in 3rd position. Sienna spent the entire second lap trying to close the gap that had formed between herself and San Bernardino's top gal Kai Marroquin. Hatcher would take the heat in a swift 2:11 and Marroquin would hold off Sienna for second (2:14). Sienna would follow in 3rd (2:15.3). Sienna's time was faster than second place in heat 1, so she now sat as the 2nd fastest non heat winner. We all watched the next two heats with anticipation. Heat 3 was an evenly run race and the second and third finishers dipped under Sienna's time, meaning that if second place in heat 4 ran under Sienna's time, she would be out. Surprisingly, heat 4 went out in 70 seconds, giving Sienna a chance.. Monterey's Rachel Hoops would BARELY hold off Stan's Megan Silva, as the two ran 2:15.86, and 2:15.87.. With that finish Sienna was in the final! Whew!

Men's 800 Prelim:
A year ago the 'Cats had only 1 800m entrant. Thankfully he (Damian Garcia) would go on to win the event. This year Damian returned as defending champion, and he would be joined by mid year transfer Brett Ephraim a RS frosh from San Clemente. Ephraim has looked better and better each week and stepped to the line in his prelim determined to make the 8-man final.

Damian made easy work of his first heat, doing only what was needed to advance to the final. Brett followed in heat 3 and made his race look just as easy. After a slow 58 second first lap Ephraim hit the front and smoothly shifted gears, which immediately spread the field behind him. Brett's long stride on the backstretch gave him a nice cushion heading into the final turn. Brett did a great job of looking around in the final 150m and running just fast enough to secure the heat win and big Q to the final.

Women's Steeplechase Final:
The 'Cats would send two barrier runners to the line on Friday. Olivia Beschorner was a surprise champion a year ago while becoming the 9th straight steeple champion for the 'Cats. Given that Olivia was just a frosh last year, things looked good for extending our streak. That is until Humboldt decided to put their running unicorn Isabel Perez-Zhogbi in a steeple earlier this season. Why the term "unicorn" you ask?.. Because Isabel has a range of talents that extend farther than maybe any athlete I've seen in the CCAA. The Humboldt standout earned All CCAA honors in XC in her first year of collegiate running, but then shifted gears in track, running 59 seconds for the 400m hurdles and qualifying for the NCAA Championships. This season she seems to have dumped the intermediate hurdles and focused her attention on the mid distances. To date Isabel has run 2:04 for the 800 (#2 in NCAA currently), and 4:23 for 1500 (NCAA qualifier and school record), and debut'd in the steeple with a 10:29 at Humboldt's home invite. Most of our coaching staff figured that a 15/8 double would be in play for her at CCAA's, but she decided on sticking with the long hurdle event (steeple), and the 800. This was good news for Sienna Bianchi (our top 15 gal), but not such good news for her roommate Olivia who hoped to defend her steeple title.

The 'Cats would also send sophomore Zoe Aitken to the line on Friday. Zoe returned to the CCAA meet ranked 6th with an 11:02 PR. Given the competitive battle that we had going with Pomona, Zoe began the competition with her eyes set on a pair of Bronco's who were seeded ahead of her with 10:50's PR's.

Knowing that Zhogbi was doubling in the 800 and that she has 2:04 800m speed, Olivia's only chances at defending her conference title would be to take the lead and make it an honest pace from the front. So she did just that. Olivia hit 400m in 81 seconds, with a line of athletes following, including the Humboldt star who marked Olivia's progress throughout. From there Olivia hit splits of 85, 85, 86, 86, 87 which pulled the pair well clear of their closest pursuers. At times Zhogbi looked stretched, but she never allowed more than a stride to separate the two. At the bell the pair ran side by side separated by just .02 seconds. Predictably Perez-Zhogbi found a gear on the backstretch and began to create some space between herself and Beschorner. Olivia fought hard and would cross the finish 2nd in 10:44 (just 2 seconds off her PR). Zhogbi had crossed just under 2 seconds before, earning her first victory of the meet. Doing amazing work among the field was Aitken who ran in 6th position for much of the race, but with a focus on the athletes in front of her. Just as we'd hoped, several athletes who'd gone out a bit too aggressively began to come back to Zoe and she capitalized. The first was Pomona's Galilea Jimenez who Zoe passed in the final 600. An 82 second final revolution also put Stan's top runner in play, so with 50m remaining Zoe moved into 4th place for good and hit the line in an 10:58 PR! Zoe's new PB also moves her onto the NCAA provisional list and ranks as the #11 AT in CSUC history.

Men's Steeplechase Final:
A year ago the Wildcats pulled a big upset in the men's barrier race sweeping the event and catapulting the men's team back into the title hunt. Since then we graduated 2 time defending champion Hunter Dougherty, but brought in Joseph DePascale who red shirted last year after transferring in from SD Mesa. Last year's CCAA runner-up Adrian Hippolito entered this year's championships ranked #1 with a 9:07 PR, but had tough outings in each of his two most recent steeple runs. Anders Beil (3rd in last year's final) has had a bumpy season dealing with a body that always leaves him guessing as to what it'll allow on any given day, but with a 9:13 PR that ranked him 3rd on the seasonal formchart.

UC Merced (new to the conference this year) offered a formidable threat in Sharvin Manjenikar who'd run 9:12 a few weeks prior, as well as a speedy 3:52 1500. East Bay also offered 9:14.0 guy Matthew Morgon who'd recently run a 3:53 1500. Of course there is always the race inside the race between the 'Cats and CP Pomona. The Bronco's had graduated a few of their steeple aces but trotted out 9:20 frosh Micah Chandler and Jimmy Guerrero (9:48 PR). Guerrero was a big wildcard given that he'd only run 1 steeple and has Pr's of 8:18 and 3:49 for the 3k/1500. Pomona was doing all they could to grab points, including putting one of their top 15 guys into the steeple in hopes of grabbing much needed points.

With all of the quick 15 pr's in the field, we knew that the pace from the front needed to be at least half-way honest. Adrian Hippolito (an excellent hurdler) assumed leadership position and ran continuous 74 second laps (literally 5 in a row!). At 2k all of the previously mentioned top seeds all ran within a second of Hippolito, but anyone who's run the steeple knows that the final kilometer is where the race is won or lost. Following Hippolito the closest was Manjrekar who is also a very smooth mover over the barriers. With 800m remaining Beil had fallen from the lead group, but so had Pomona's frosh Chandler. Adrian squeezed the pace down to 73 seconds hitting the bell in 8:07.6 with Manjrekar just .2 seconds behind. East Bay's Morgan ran in 3rd just 1 second behind the pair and DePascale just a second behind him. Good news for the 'Cats title chase came in Guerrero's 76 lap, which moved him into fifth position with Beil just 5-6 seconds behind. The race for the individual title was an absolute barn-burner as Hippolito and Manjrekar ran stride for stride for almost the entire final lap. They would take the water barrier in synch, but just after, the Merced standout hit another gear and put a stride or two on Adrian. An awkward final barrier nearly cost Manjrekar the title as he landed sideways, but just as Adrian drew even with him again, Sharvin regained his momentum and flew to the finish. The Merced athlete would hit the tape in 9:11 having recorded a 64 final revolution. Adrian would follow in second having run a 65 final lap. Morgan would finish 3rd in 9:14 and in true Anders Beil fashion, Anders would hawk down Pomona's Guerrero with 50m to go to finish 5th. Given that Merced is unable to factor into team scoring until next year (due to the fact that they're transitioning into the NCAA from the NAIA) the 'Cats would take 1st, 3rd and 4th in team scoring (21-6 in the Chico/Pomona battle).

At the end of Day 2 the Chico men enjoyed a pretty solid lead in the team scores, and the women trailed Pomona by less than 20 points.

CHAMPIONSHIP SATURDAY (Day 3):

Women's 1500m:
Chico's Sienna Bianchi entered Saturday's final as the favorite with her 4:27 PR run at the Bryan Clay meet a few weeks prior. San Marcos' Liberty Miller was the second seed with a 4:28 PR. After this pair the field was pretty wide open with the next 6 seeds landing between 4:34-4:36 (which included the 'Cats Catherine McGuire, Kaya Scuba, and Paulina Martins). Bianchi, McGuire, and Scuba all train with our 8/15 group, while Martins trains with the 5/10 group, but had run a 4:35 at the Chico Invite.

With a fair number of our opponents having some speedy 800m Pr's, the plan was to make sure the pace at the front was decently honest for the first 800m. On paper this idea (of keeping the pace honest) sounded good, but in reality a Stan runner grabbed the lead in the first 200m and gradually slowed it down with each passing hundred meter stretch. After a 400m split in the 77-78 range the field slowed to a 78-79 second revolution. With no one willing to grab the front and stretch the field, things got tight and unfortunately Sienna Bianchi was clipped by an athlete behind her and fell face-first to the track. Her fall (just before the 800m mark) caused a chain-reaction crash that took out several others as well. Having lost her shoe in the pile-up Sienna jumped to her feet and probably put a bit too much energy into re-catching the pack than she should have. By the bell Sienna was back into 4th position and on the heels of the lead group, that included teammate Martins. Most of the other scoring threats, including McGuire and Scuba followed closely at the bell.

San Marcos' Liberty Miller had taken the lead going into 800m and dropped a 72 penultimate lap. Stan's Izzy Soto followed closely, as did Paulina. The final lap turned into a battle between Martins and Miller as the pair shifted gears and ran away from all pursuers. Despite training with our distance group Paulina was just too strong and too fast for Miller as the true frosh from Orland HS recorded a blazing 65.8 final lap to earn her first CCAA individual title. Miller would take second and Soto third. McGuire and Scuba ran in 4/5 over much of the final lap, recording twin 70 second closes, but Stan's 2:10 800m gal Megan Silva would close a bit quicker to grab 4th. Lost in the frantic final lap was the difficult finish for Bianchi who hit a bit of a wall in the final 200m. Her fall and subsequent surge to re-catch the leaders had caught up with her, but thankfully she hung tough and managed to secure the final scoring spot. Despite the unfortunate turn of events for Sienna we still managed to place all 4 women into the scoring 8. Following the race Paulina admitted to running inspired for Sienna. Having seen her teammate fall earlier in the race and knowing she was struggling with just one shoe, Paulina said she became determined to Win for her teammate! What a tribute! Oh yeah, 18 more points for the 'Cats!

Men's 1500m:
The 'Cats would send 2 men to the 15 final, 3:39 guy Damian Garcia (defending champ) and RS Sophomore Alex Lamoureux who was making his CCAA debut. In planning for the race we expected Pomona to get to the front and try to slow the pace down because most of their top 15 guys were doubling back in the 5k later in the day and all had solid 3:47-3:51 PR's. A plan was hatched to make sure the pace was at least half-way honest to help Alex' chances of getting onto the podium. Alex doesn't have big closing gears, but runs well off a quick pace. Thankfully late in our pre-race talk I remembered a year where I was certain that Pomona would want a slow early pace, and then they surprisingly put their top guys at the front running a 59-60 second clip. That year our guys weren't prepared for the really fast start and one of our favorites was caught on his heels and struggled. With this in my mind, we talked about a world where Pomona put their horses at the front to create a quick early tempo, which in our eyes would be perfect if it happened.

As you might expect by now, Pomona went straight to the front and drove a fast early pace. Damian and Alex methodically moved themselves onto the heels of the Bronco pack that hit 300m in 44 seconds flat. The pace settled in lap 2 as the Bronco's recorded a 63 split. With 800m remaining (1:47) Damian ran on the heels of Pomona's All American Ricardo Vargas. The pair had put a slight gap on the chase group that included Alex and several of Pomona's other top seeds. With 650m remaining Damian tried to move by Vargas to take the turn in lane 1, but the Pomona runner held him off briefly, before Damian Really made a move to the front for good. The junior from Chico then controlled the race from the front for the remainder of the run. Damian recorded a penultimate lap of 59.7 as Vargas had run a 60 flat. Alex was also moving nicely hitting the bell in 3rd position having run a 61.1 himself. Vargas gave Damian nothing over the final lap, forcing the defending champ to run a 59.1 final lap to repeat as champion. Vargas would follow in 2nd having closed in 59.3 (3:47 PR). Alex looked Amazing closing in 59.4 and hitting the tape 3rd in 3:48.6 (new PR!). Pomona's next finishers would cross in 5th, 6th and 9th. (for those keeping score.. Chico 16, Pomona-15!)

Women's 800m:
Sienna Bianchi had spent a decent portion of the 2 hours between her 1500 final (that included a hard fall) being tended to by the medical trainers, who treated some scrapes on her knees and feet. Thankfully she could mechanically run correctly so the 800m was still in play. That was the good news. The bad news was that she had Barely squeaked into a very high powered final and was ranked 8th of the 8 finalists. Nevertheless Sienna was hungry to go out and try to beat her ranking while helping her team's chances for a title.

Pomona's Hatcher took the field out fast, most likely knowing that Humboldt's Zhogbi Might? Be slightly tired from her steeple final the day before. Either way, Hatcher was out quickly and the field sailed through 400m in swift splits. Sienna hit the lap-to-go mark trailing the field, but close enough to the action to potentially take a spot or two if someone wasn't having a great day. While Humboldt's Zhogbi took care of business at the front, eventually winning her second title in 2 days Sienna was also taking care of business, passing Stan's Isabelle Soto (who'd finished 3rd in the 15 final earlier) with 250 remaining. Going into the final 100m Sienna began making up time on San Bernadino's Maraquin (who'd beaten Sienna the day before in the prelims). Apparently the aggressive run the day before had caught up with Maraquin, as Sienna rolled by en-route to a 6th place finish. Add 3 more points to the Chico tally in an event where our top seed was 10th going into the meet!

Men's 800m:
On paper Damian Garcia was a pretty solid favorite to defend his title, but of course Pomona's Vargas had forced him to a 3:46 in the 1500 earlier, which would certainly put a dent in his momentum. 2024 champion Renton McGreggor (a Chico native running for San Marcos) looked great in the prelims and was a solid pick for at least a spot on the podium. Brett Ephraim also looked great in prelims and I liked our chances of putting two on the podium if Brett could replicate his Friday effort.

Lap 1 was pretty honest as San Marcos' Noah Cavender charged to the lead, pulling the pack through 400m in a low 55 split. Damian ran in second with Brett on his shoulder in third. As the Chico guys approached the backstretch Brett shifted gears as he had the day before and took the lead heading down the straight toward the final turn. Damian briefly appeared to be falling backward with 250m remaining, but then put his head down and within a 30m stretch was back on the heels of the lead group heading into the final turn. As the leaders approached the homestraight Brett was in the lead, with Damian at his side. McGreggor though looked poised for a fast final straight as he used the momentum that the pair of 'Cats were creating at the front to slingshot off the turn. Ephraim began to tie up as Damian and McGreggor passed him. Brett held on to a podium position for around 750m before a Pomona athlete and an East Bay guy slipped by. Damian would win the battle down the straight, giving him 2 X 15/8 titles in as many years. Pomona would take 3rd, while Eion Daley from East Bay would take 4th. Brett would hold on for fifth. 14 more team points for the 'Cats vs 6 for the Broncos. By this point in the meet the guys were well on their way to defending the team title from '25.

Women's 5,000m:
As mentioned earlier in the write-up, by the time the meet reached the 5k (the meet's penultimate final) the Chico women were staring at a 27 point deficit between themselves and Pomona, but with this being said, yours truly liked our chances of handing the baton off to our 4X4 with a lead to protect. We returned the top 4 finishers from Thursday's 10k, which we purposely kept in check pace-wise to help preserve the legs for this 5k. Then we add newly minted 1500 champion Paulina Martins (16:41 PR), and two fresh horses in Della Molina (16:16 PR) and Isabel Rosales (17:12 PR). We had a great pre-race talk an hour before the gun, and after discussing the pacing plans at the front, the main message was to enjoy the opportunity that we had in front of us. The 5k women would have the opportunity to tip the score massively and they had each other to help make it happen. The ultimate goal was to squeeze our top 7 into the scoring 8, which would certainly accomplish the point tally that we'd hoped for as well.

The biggest threats to the 'Cats achieving their goal were San Marcos' Liberty Miller who'd just taken 2nd in the 1500, and has a PR of 16:40. Also, San Marcos' 10k gal Angela McManus (17:12 PR). Pomona would also double their two steeple women back as their only real threat at scoring and you knew they were extra motivated to break up our pack.

The plan for our crew was to send our two steeple women to the front (Olivia Beschorner and Zoe Aitken) to run an even 83-84 second pace (17:15-17:30 pace roughly). Hopefully they could get our women close to 3k and then we could notch the pace down at the front as needed, using our top women.

It's not often that a plan comes together perfectly, but this one was pretty darn close. although it did take some time and patience for things to fall into place.

With 36 women in the field, some of our athletes were completely buried for several laps, before finally clawing their way through the masses to eventually join the Chico train at the front of the race. With even 84 second laps being recorded by Zoe and Olivia at the front, and our 7 women following, the lead pack gradually shrunk in size with each lap covered. At 1600 nearly 20 were attached, but by 3k the lead train was 9 strong, and 7 wore the Wildcat jersey. Our pacers had stepped off just before 3k, so Iresh Molina took the front much as she had in the 10k on Thursday and began upping the ante. After 6.5 laps of 84's Iresh dropped an 81 to 3k. Megan Malloy took the front and added an 81 of her own. The mid race 2:42 800m was too much for everyone except our top-5 women.. the Molina sisters, Megan, Paulina, and Kira Forsberg. Liberty Miller was now falling back, and her teammate McManus had already cracked. Pomona's Jimenez fought hard, and managed to hold closest to the 5 'Cats at the front before she lost contact. Our front five closed the race down beautifully as each ran an 80-81 second penultimate lap, before racing it out for the podium order. Iresh would take her 4th CCAA track title in two years with a smooth 70 second final lap. Megan would follow closely with an 71, and Della managed a 70 of her own for third. The three finished with 17:08, :09, and :10 finish times. Paulina would cross next in 17:12 and Kira followed just a few seconds back in 5th. There was a point in the final mile where the 'Cats ran 1-6 as RS Frosh Isabel Rosales had passed Pomona's Galilea Jimenez.. but the Bronco had enough of a kick to overtake Isabel over the final lap. With that being said, Isabel held on nicely for 7th, and Jasmine Fletcher sailed through the line 8th a nice 6 seconds in front of San Marcos' Miller. What a race this was. As each Wildcat crossed the line they were welcomed by the group that had just finished and quickly there was a victorious group-hug happening, as the women knew they'd achieved their goal.

Men's 5,000m:
By the time we reached the men's 5k the meet was pretty much in the bag, but the guys all had prepared for battle, knowing that Pomona would provide stiff competition, and of course we had that 22 year title streak to defend.

The Wildcats would send two fresh guys to the start in this one.. Mario Giannini the CCAA leader (14:05) and Matthew Gordon (14:23 PR). Sergio Reyes, Sean Alliegro, and Jesus Villarreal would all double back from the 10k, and Alex Lamoureux would double back after his podium run in the 15 earlier.

As usual we had our steeplers set to create an honest pace from the front, in order to take advantage of the fact that Pomona's top guys were all doubling back from the 15 or the 10k, or the steeple. Anders Beil has been our go-to first pacer, having set the pace for at least 3 CCAA 5k's now for the initial 1600 to 2k. On Saturday though Beil had competition for pacing at the front, as Pomona's Jimmy Guerrero seemed determined to keep the pace honest himself. As it turns out he stepped off the track at 1600 in what appeared to be a planned departure. Beil made it to 2k before stepping off and handing over the reins to Joseph DePascale. Joseph kept the pace at a sub 70 second clip for another lap before Adrian Hippolito took the front and delivered a 68 second lap to 3k. By 3200 (reached in 9:12) only Vargas ran with Mario and Mario's 67 second 9th lap was enough to dispatch the Pomona All American. Behind Mario and Vargas the 'Cats were doing some awesome work, with Sergio, Sean, and Matthew all running in a three man pack in 3rd, 4th, and 5th places. Then came the pleasant surprise of Alex Lamoureux who seemed to appear out of nowhere after spending the early laps mixed in with the masses, but running a beautifully executed run. Also running a really nice race was Jesus Villarreal who had also emerged from the pack and into a scoring position over the final half.

Mario's repeated 68 second laps in the final mile were too much for Vargas, and the local Chico product would add his name to the 23 year 5k streak (joining Jack Emanuel another former Chico HS alum). There was a point in the final 800m when Matthew caught up to and passed the tiring Vargas but this was short lived as the 1500 runner-up threw down a 60 second final lap to re-take second for good. Matthew's 63 second close was impressive and landed him on his second CCAA podium. Sergio, Sean, and Alex would follow in 4th, 5th and 6th, and Jesus' 8th place finish gave the 'Cats 6 of the 8 scoring spots.

Final thoughts. What a great meet for the Chico teams! It was so rewarding to be a part of two team titles, as it'd been since 2017 since we brought home 2 trophies in track. Of course this was also a special year where we brought both home in the fall as well, so 4 CCAA titles in the year is special.

Our Wildcat distance squad really enjoyed a great meet. A few stats that stand out:

*99 team points for the men
*99 team points for the women
Between the 5 distance events (m/w) there are 30 podium opportunities. Chico athletes took 16 of those.
*Wildcats had the overall champs in 6 of the 10 distance events
*Mario Giannini becomes the 23rd straight 5k Champion for the 'Cats
*All 23 of the Distance 'Cats scored points toward the eventual titles
*Iresh Molina becomes the 5th straight Wildcat woman to win the 5k

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