Well, another epic Chico Invitational is in the books. I've been a part of quite a few home invites through the years, but this one stands alone as a very unique experience. Mother nature delivered a series of blows (literally!) to us that caused numerous lightening delays throughout the two day meet. To briefly explain what we were up against in running the races off, NCAA rules state that if lightening strikes are occurring within a 10 mile radius of the event, everyone must evacuate indoors. To complicate matters more, Once lightening isn't detected (via a weather app) within the 10 mile radius, a 30minute timer begins. If no strikes occur nearby during that 30min window, then athletes and coaches can return to the field and return to competition. Of course there's a lot of complexities to this when it comes to warm ups, and timelines, etc. With all of this being said, we were able to somehow pull off a mostly complete Invitational (minus a few events, including the 4 X 4's) and some great races were had.

Topping the list of great races was definitely Damian Garcia's sub 4 mile attempt. The Junior from Turlock had run 4:01 here a year ago and was determined to break the barrier this year. Although he would come up just short of his goal, the race was very exciting and fans who stuck around through the delays were treated to an experience they'll never forget. Onward to a few of the details.

Friday:

The schedule Friday was to start the meet off with a kid's mile at around 6:30pm with the fast college 800's to follow at 7pm.. then a few steeples that would lead up to the mile at around 8pm. The evening would conclude with a few 5k's.

As the kids and their parents began to show up for their mile, the weather began to take a turn for the worse, and before their warm up period could begin we had lightening in the area, and everyone had to evacuate indoors. Small cells of weather with electrical dumps kept pushing our clock back, and coaches began to consider trying to reschedule events for Saturday morning. With weather looking even worse the next morning (heavy winds), an impromptu coaches' meeting resulted in a plan to wait things out, hoping we could sneak in our 2 hour distance carnival before midnight. As it would play out, this is exactly what happened. Weather finally calmed around 8:30pm, and we started the program around 9:30.

Women's 800's: Weather for the 800's wasn't ideal, but it also wasn't too bad. We had a wet track and it was cool outside, but the winds weren't too strong and the air was certainly crisp and clean. Either way, everyone was excited to get out and race.

Sienna Bianchi (2:14 PR) would lead the fast heat from wire to wire. Teammate Catherine McGuire (2:16 pr) committed to the pace through a swift 65 400m split. Sienna would cross the finish with a 2:13 PR, while McGuire skipped the 2:15's altogether with her 2:14 finish time. Sidney Garcia made it a Wildcat podium sweep with her 2:18 seasonal best. Red-shirting true frosh Ava Marie-Csutoras would also finish with a 2:18. Madison Decker just missed cracking the 2:20 mark with her heat 2 win (2:20.05).

Men's 800m: Ian Rosen (who's currently red shirting) went from last to first in the second lap of the 800m recording a 1:53 for his season opener. Ian transferred in from SD Mesa in January and got a late start to training with the team. He's making quick progress and will be a weapon in the coming years. RS Frosh Jacob Camacho narrowly missed his PB while taking 4th in 1:55.3.

Men's Mile: A week ago Damian was forced to sit out his only 5k opportunity for the season due to a hamstring issue that popped up just days before his Stanford race. Given the unpredictability of his health coming into this week, we didn't want to promote the mile a lot, in case Damian wasn't able to compete. Thankfully he was able to get through some pain free strides on Monday, and a solid workout Tuesday, so the Friday mile was on. Not to be forgotten in the equation was the addition of some fast teammates.. Mario Giannini (3:50-1500 PR) had just run a 14:05 5k last week, and Alex Lamoureux was coming off a very nice 3:50.4 in SF.

The plan was to have 3 of our 5k/10k guys (Sean Alliegro, Jesus Villarreal, and Sergio Cuartas) spearhead the attack for 600-800m before giving way to our final pacer Brett Ephraim (1:53 800m last week), who would hopefully get Damian to 600m. We met the day before and actually did 4-5 practice starts, trying to get the guys into position without hindering Damian's rhythm. We then ran through 2 X 200m start stretches, combining the positioning and the pacing. The guys were reminded that they'd feel a bit more peppy on race night, so we didn't want to get ahead of ourselves in that first 200m. Of course, this is pretty much what went down the next night (haha). Onward to the race.

With the constantly adjusted schedule the evening of the mile, the guys did their best to wait things out and keep positive. The good news about the delay was that by the time they were actually out on the track the winds had nearly disappeared and it was a beautiful setting for fast running. Many of the fans had elected to go home, so the atmosphere wasn't what it was a year ago, but for those who were there, they were excited to make some noise and hope to witness history.

At the gun the guys shot to the lead, doing a pretty good job of nailing their positioning, but as mentioned previously our lead pacers hit 200m a bit ahead of schedule and 400m was reached in 58.3 seconds. With the mile being 33 feet more than the 4 lap distance (1600) the 1.5 seconds that it takes to cover the additional length had been knocked out in lap 1. Damian now had to average 60.0 (or under) for each of the next 3 revolutions to get under 4 minutes. Going into 600m one of our pacers, Sean Alliegro clipped the rail and nearly fell onto the track. Thankfully he was able to exit onto the infield without tripping Damian up. Going into 800m Sergio slid into lane 2, clearing the path for Brett to take over from the front. Through it all Damian looked solid and confident. Lap two was a 61 flat, which put Damian behind the pace a bit, so the third circuit would be a key. As they approached 1k Ephraim looked gassed and before reaching the end of the straight he'd slid into lanes 2, and then three, leaving Damian to race the clock for the final 650m.

Before moving further into Damian's race, I have to say it was very exciting to see both Giannini and Lamoureux following relatively closely throughout the early stages of the run. I'd guess the pair hit 800m in 2:02, and the 2 lap-to go mark in 2:03. Mario did much of the leading of the pair before Alex took a hard push toward the end, before Giannini would finally hit the finish just a fraction of a second ahead.

Returning to Damian's run.. Lap three was a grind (as it always is for milers) and Damian would hit the bell having recorded another 61. With a lap remaining Damian needed a sub 58 to get under 4minutes, and as he rounded the penultimate turn you could see that he had Not given up the fight, as his cadence was quickening and he was clearly running faster. Damian sprinted down the backstretch, having made up a fraction of a second toward 4:00 in the previous 200m. As Damian hit the final straight fans were literally jumping up and down screaming on the infield trying their hardest to urge him to the line. Your truly sprinted across the infield from the backstretch trying to reach the finish to see him cross. I whipped out my phone at the last second and recorded the final 40 meters. Damian was in full stride through the line and had a great lean, but as he stretched for the imaginary tape the crowd collectively created a loud "OOOHHHH" and he hit the floor. For the next minute or so the crowd stood and waited for the official time to appear on the digital clock. Damian, sprawled on the track trying to collect his breathing and emotions. Finally the head timer exclaimed: "Four Minutes, point five-one" Ahhh. So close. In the next minute Damian stood up and walked toward the crowd at the finish area and waived and thanked everyone for the support. Damian is an absolute class act, and he's only a Junior, so mark your calendars, as we'll be back next year!

Ok, before signing off on the mile, 2 time defending CCAA XC champ Mario Giannini finished strong narrowly missing a 4:06 (4:07.04 finish time) and teammate Lamoureux followed just a few tenths of a second back in 4:07.4. Their 1500 conversions (3:48/:49) are nice PR's! It was a bit of a rough go for the remaining 'Cats who all got out quite aggressively in the first lap and paid for it in the second half.

Men's Steeplechase: True frosh Garrett Fenske notched a 9:50 in his uniform debut, but was ten seconds off his 9:40 from SF the week before. With new NCAA rules stating that true frosh can run in uniform several times during their first year and still have the season count as a red shirt, we decided to put the uniform on Garrett to notch a time at home. The Salem, OR native is a gifted hurdler and solid water jumper, and has a bright future in the barrier event.

Men's 5,000m: The highlight of the 5k's was two-fold. First, we brought back a number of milers/pacers to do a workout after their race within the 5k. Several helped Butte's 10k school record holder Stephan Chapdelaine attempt to break the school's 5k record (14:48). Joseph DePascale and Alex Lamoureux hung back and paced teammate Charlie Brennan who had a Very tough go at his 10k debut the week previous.

Sergio, Jesus, Sean, and Mario got Stephan to 4k pretty close to pace, but unfortunately Steph just missed the mark with a 14:49 PB. Steph, btw is a recent Chico commit and is a great story in the making. Charlie looked SO much better this week than last and took second in 15:28 (progress!).

It was 11:30pm when we wrapped up the Friday section of the meet, but thankfully everyone was able to race before Saturday's big winds (and more rain) came.

Saturday:

The main event for the 'Cats on Saturday was the 1500, and of course Mother nature had to play a part in the the action.

Pretty early in the Saturday program we had electrical activity nearby, and a relatively full stadium had to be evacuated for nearly an hour. Finally the meet resumed and we ran a bit over an hour behind the regular schedule for a good portion of the afternoon. The winds were pretty heavy and rain storms came and went. Just when it appeared that we Might make it through the program without an additional delay, another cell came in during heat 1 of the 4 fastest 1500 heats of the meet (2 X women, 2 X men).

Women's Seeded 1500: The women's seeded 15 began in darkening skies and sprinkles, and by the time the pack hit 400m rain was falling hard and fans began to duck for cover. Locked into the competition and trying to run some PR's, the Chico women looked great. Inside of 800m remaining, light flashed in the northern sky, and everyone knew this would be the final race of this portion of the program. Sophomore steeple specialist Zoe Aitken had taken the overall lead of the race, and true frosh teammate April Anguiano followed closely on her heels. A very swift final lap by the pair helped the two to big PR's as Anguiano kicked best finishing in 4:46. Aitkin followed just 1 second back with a 9 second PB. Red shirting true frosh Ava Marie Csutoras and Hailey Anglin also finished with 4:54/4:55 PR's.

As expected, as the women finished and the men's seeded field congregated around their start line, the announcement came that the meet was once again on delay. At the time of this delay only 3 X 1500 races and the 4 X 4 remained on the running schedule. The men's shot put was in progress, as was the men's triple jump. So close to the finish and now we looked at another hour long delay (at minimum).

The weather window REALLY took a turn for the worse as the cell hit University Stadium in full force. Thankfully the good majority of fans, coaches and athletes had escaped indoors before the worst of the weather hit. Yours truly watched 4-5 team tents become unmoored by the massive winds and tossed to the north end of the stadium. Within several minutes numerous teams decided that they'd seen and dealt with enough, and let us know that they were collecting their belongings and heading home. With 3 X 1500's still remaining to be run, and not a lot of opportunities for our Steeple/5k/10k athletes to run the 15's when they're fit, we Really wanted to hold out hope that we could re-start the meet and finish them off.

Thankfully Southern Oregon, Dominican, and Santa Cruz stuck around, and were willing to see if weather would improve enough to start the meet back up and finish off the 15's. I'm not sure we made a lot of friends with the meet officials and the timers, but thankfully our persistence paid off and the weather improved enough for us to get an eventual clearance to resume racing.

With so many teams having headed home, we decided to consolidate the 2 men's heats into 1, leaving us with 2 races to run off.

Men's Seeded 1500: With most of our top milers having run the evening before in the actual mile, and with a few more pulling out beforehand, the 'Cats were pretty short-handed in this one. Red shirting true frosh Aaron Feaster had a nice run and nearly got the win with his 4:01 seasonal best (3rd place). RS Frosh Xander Schulte-Sasse followed with a near PR 4:05.

Women's Invitational 1500: Having Pr'd in the 800m the evening before, Sienna Bianchi would act as the pacer in this one. With only Chico women seeded under 4:45 it would be a bit of an intra-squad feel, as the ladies chased times. Sienna hit 400m right around the hoped 72 second split, and 800m was reached in 2:25. Paulina Martins was attached, as were the Molina twins, and Catherine McGuire. A small gap had formed between this quartet and a scattered chase group. The third lap saw Bianchi lead Paulina Martins away from the crew as a lot of our top gals seemed to be struggling. Paulina finished strong, and her bravery was rewarded with a 4:35 PR. A strong final 50m gave Della Molina a second place finish (4:39) just ahead of Isabel Rosales who chopped 5 seconds from her PB (4:40.2). Fourth placer Kira Forsberg also notched a PR with her 4:40 finish. Iresh Molina (4:41), Kaya Scuba (4:43) and Catherine McGuire (4:43) would take the next three places. Not quite the outcome that most had hoped for, but in looking at the evening, there just weren't a lot of folks running PR's after the long day of delays. Looking at the bright side though, the 'Cats took the top 11 places overall and had no less than 19 women run between 4:35 and 5:00! (counting red shirts)

Due to the long delays and the post meet senior recognition, all post race workouts were cancelled, much to the dismay of the athletes I'm sure. ;v)

Next Up: The 'Cats will be making our annual trip to So Cal, where we'll have athletes competing at the Bryan Clay and LaVerne Invites.

Look for: 5k's for all those who ran 10's last week.. Iresh/Della Molina, Megan Malloy, Sergio, Jesus, and Sean.. 10k debuts for Kira Forsberg and Paulina Martins.. Mario Giannini will make his first serious attempt at the 25 lapper, along with Matthew Gordon. Steeplers will steeple, and Mid d folks will do their thing. Stay tuned!