Tactics prove privotal at the second EAL/SRL center meet held at Hooker Oak.
Pleasant Valley boys win varsity race, but Chico prevails in the other three.

Wednesday October 19, 2022
Photos & story by Tom Cushman

CHICO, CA -- Another sunny day in Chico for the second league center meet of the 2022 cross country season. Once again, the Hooker Oak Recreation Area in Bidwell Park was the venue for this competition. Conditions in the mid to upper 80s combined with near calm winds proved ideal for viewing but made racing a little more challenging, especially for the longer varsity races.

At the first center meet held at three weeks ago at Foothill, saw Pleasant Valley take the boys races and Foothill win both girls races while Chico ended up third in the varsity girls race and second in the other three. The Panther's poor showing was due to a lack of bodies. That was not the case for the second go around. Chico won both girls races and the JV boys' competition with margins to spare while coming closer to Pleasant Valley in the varsity boy's race.

The varsity girls race started out with the top contenders from Chico and PV leading with potential winners from Foothill and Shasta tucked in close behind. Halfway through the lead pack was whittled down the four, Chico Ava-Marie Csutoras, PV's Chloe Alchin, Foothill's Jasmine Corliss and Shasta's Elizabeth Merrill with one more big loop to go. Returning to the start/finish area, the lead pack was missing one (Csutoras had stopped around the 2-mile mark due to a foot injury). The remaining three all remained in contention until Merrill surged into the lead with about 150 meters to go. Only Corliss was able to stay close, but it was too little too late.

Despite the loss of Csutoras, Chico girls still won thanks to Lilly Jeffords 5th, Dot Clemente 6th, Siri Kleivenes Lund 9th, Rosalie Brown 10th, Mira Sidhu 11th. Despite two in the top four and three in the top ten, Foothill had to settle for second this go around. Pleasant Valley took third as their second runner finished behind Chico fifth. None of the other teams in the race (i.e., Shasta, Enterprise or Red Bluff) could field enough runners to field a scoring team (5).

The varsity boys race was never going to be anything different than a battle between Chico and Pleasant Valley, with the odds favoring the Vikings. The opening half mile was tactical with none of the favorites pressing the pace. The race remained so through the first mile despite the loss of a few pretenders. With a mile to go, it came down to Jackson Hein, Charles Brennan and Carter Murphy. Hein, winner of the Chico Autumn Invitational last Saturday appeared to be in the driver's seat but Brennan had other ideas. Like the girls race, it came down the a late race kick with Hein taking point and Brennan willing but not quite able to reel the Viking sophomore in. Murphy was a more distant third.

Further behind Chico Matt Anderson was battling Mark Valezquez-Patino and Mark Doud of PV and seemed to be gaining a slight advantage with a half mile to go when he looked to become briefly disoriented due to the heat. He never threatened the Marks again with Doud taking fourth, V-P fifth leaving Anderson sixth. Austin Hein and Nolan McLoughlin 7th & 8th places sealed the scoring for PV. Nigel Daly was Chico's 4th in 9th but the Panther's fifth didn't come in until 15th place behind to 2 displacing Vikings and three non-scoring runners from Enterprise (They were missing their number 1 runner who narrowly loss to Jacksom Hein in the first center meet.)