Butte Valley, CA -- The Butte College men's cross country team was named California Community College Athletic Association NorCal Champions on Nov. 6 for the first time since 1979 - and now the Roadrunners will compete at the CCCAA state meet Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno.
"It means a lot, because I take pride in what Butte can represent," said Butte College head cross country and distance coach Mark Chavez.
Chavez ran cross country for Butte College in 2010 and 2011, and is now in his sixth season as head cross country coach after taking over in 2019. "It shows what we can really do as a team if we set our goals high. With this championship it solidifies that Butte can be a powerhouse, and we can win at the highest level. It's not any other JC that's up there, we're among the best now and we want to continue that for the foreseeable future."
When asked about the difference with this year's team from previous teams, Chavez emphasized the buy in that was started by last year's team and brought into this year's. This year's team features five sophomores, including four from Butte County - one from Pleasant Valley High School, one from Chico High School, one from Durham and one from Oroville. In addition to the five sophomores, the Roadrunners feature eight freshmen, including the team's top runner, Stephan Chapdelaine from Live Oak High School.
"He has really taken into account and into heart what we're doing," Chavez said of Chapdelaine. "From the beginning he was really open to the coaching, the training and he ran with it from day one. He really took initiative on himself to really push the boundaries on what running at Butte could be, and that kind of led him to be our main runner."
Closely behind Chapdelaine are two runners that make up the Roadrunners' top-3 that have pushed each other all season - sophomores Philip Logan and Mark Velazquez-Patino.
"Those two have pushed (Chapdelaine) and each other and the rest of the boys to be what we are now," Chavez said. "It's not just one person, but it's mostly been that trio."
At the NorCal finals Chapdelaine finished the 4-mile race in second place in 20 minutes and 50.8 seconds, 7 minutes and 7.5 seconds behind first place Jesse Blanco from Hartnell. Logan finished in fifth place (21:15.3) and Velazquez-Patino was eighth (21:20.8) in the 106 person race. Butte was first with a low score of 83 points, De Anza was second with 98, American River was third with 101, Hartnell fourth with 113 and Santa Rosa fifth with 148 in the 15 team competition.
Heading into the CCCAA state championship meet on Saturday, Chavez said his goal is a top-10 finish.
"A success would be finishing top-10 at state," Chavez said. "Anything in the top-10 would be a cherry on top from the season."
2 girls qualify for state
In addition to the Butte College boys team competing as both a team and individuals at the state meet, two runners from the Butte College women's team qualified as well.
Jennifer Johnson, a freshman from Durham High School, finished 10th in the 3-mile NorCal championships on Nov. 8 in 19:54.4. Johnson finished 1 minute and 38 seconds behind the first place finisher Rhiannon Walker from Clovis, and 18.6 seconds behind fifth place finisher Media Gowda from Chabot. Sutter High School alumnae Paulina Arias finished 35th in 21:22.0. The Roadrunners women's team did not qualify as a team, finishing in ninth place out of 13 teams with qualifying scores.
"I worked hard getting Jennifer Johnson out here and Paulina," Chavez said. "They are the same like the guys - they bought in and they've really taken their running to the next level, so it's been amazing to see them grow as individuals and runners."
