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Chico State once again the school to beat in Saturday's CCAA Cross Country Championships
Kara Lubieniecki (L) and Beau Gradone-Rogers attempt to match last year's top 10 efforts Saturday in the CCAA Cross Country Championships.
10/21/2009 4:23:57 PM
WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Cross Country Championships will be taking place Saturday at Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville, and the nationally-ranked Chico State men’s and women’s cross country teams are looking to add another lofty achievement to an already successful 2009 season, while continuing the school’s long stretch of conference dominance.
The Wildcats come into the Cross Country Championships, hosted this year by Humboldt State, as the defending champion in both the men’s and women’s events after capturing the 2008 CCAA crowns in San Bernardino.
The Chico State men, ranked third in the nation and No. 1 in the West Region, will be shooting for their ninth consecutive conference championship. Brendan Scanlon will attempt to match or better last year’s performance, when he finished second to Wildcat teammate Scott Bauhs. Several other Wildcat runners, including Jimmy Elam (three top ten finishes this season), Michael Wickman and Beau Gradone-Rogers (each with two top 10 efforts in ’09), will be taking their shot at winning the CCAA’s individual championship.
The Chico State women’s team enters the event with the No. 1 ranking in the nation, and has won five of the last seven CCAA cross country championships. Among the Wildcats competing for the individual title are Kara Lubieniecki and Alia Gray (both with a pair of top 10 finishes on the year), and four top 15 finishers from last year’s conference championships: Tori Tyler, Stephanie Consiglio, Shannon Rich and Colleen Joyce.
The women’s 6-kilometer race is scheduled to start at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, with the men’s 8-kilometer run slated to begin at 9:45 a.m.
There are no upcoming events.
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Wildcats of the Week
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Men's Golf
Sylvester Gama carded three consecutive sub-par rounds and finished alone in second place at 7-under par at the Coyote Classic last Monday and Tuesday. Gama, competing as an individual, finished six strokes clear of third place in a standout performance that was bettered only by Cal State San Bernardino's Gene Webster, Jr.
Gama went 2-under in the opening round on the par-70 course at Arrowhead Country Club. He went 1-under in the afternoon. And on Tuesday, Gama's 66 was bettered only by Webster and matched his teammate Kyle Souza for the third lowest round of the tournament.
A 6-foot senior from Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara CC), Gama has now gone under par in eight of his 16 rounds of the 2009-10 season. His stroke average of 72.1 is second on the Wildcats as are his three top-five finishes.
Those efforts have made him easily the team's most improved player thus far this season. His stroke average was 75.3 last season and he had just one top-10 finish - an eighth-place finish at the CCAA Championships.
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Women's Track
There’s something about the annual Chico Multi that always brings out the best in heptathlete Kelly Clancey. For the second straight year, the junior from Modesto earned an NCAA Championships provisional bid in the heptathlon during the two-day Chico Multi, collecting 4,743 total points over the seven events, easily surpassing the 4,400 points needed to secure the provisional bid.
Clancey was the dominant athlete in the 12-person field, taking first place in four of the seven hepthatlon events. She took top honors in the high jump (5 feet, 3.25 inches), long jump (17 feet, 9.5 inches), 100-meter hurdles (15.42 seconds) and the 800-meter run (2 minutes, 20.25 second), while finishing second in the 200-meter dash (26.34 seconds), fourth in the shot put and sixth in the javelin throw.
Clancey, already well ahead of last season's schedule in which she scored a 4,400 in the Chico Multi and went on to post a career-best 4,811 at the CCAA Championships and advance to the NCAA Championships, will try to better her provisional mark March 24-25 at the California Multi, hosted by UC Berkeley.
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3.9.10 | Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
The accolades for the Chico State women’s cross country program keep coming in. This time, instead of their exploits on the trails, four Wildcats have been honored for their achievements in the classroom. Freshman Paige Henker, sophomore Alia Gray and juniors Kara Lubieniecki and Shannon Rich have been named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic team.
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11.24.09 | Women's Cross Country
Tori Tyler became the first Chico State runner to lead the Wildcats across the line in consecutive NCAA Championship races by finishing 27th in the nation over the weekend in Evansville, Ind. Tyler, who finished 16th in the nation last year, has been named Wildcat of the Week.
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11.21.09 | Women's Cross Country
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – WOW! That small three-letter word may be the best way to describe the three-runner performance of Chico State cross country athletes Tori Tyler, Kara Lubieniecki, and Alia Gray at the National Championships Saturday.
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11.19.09 | Cross Country, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Gary Towne recently moved into a bigger office. It’s a good thing, because it was getting hard to find him among all of the trophies. Towne, Chico State’s cross country coach, embarks on his quest to have the same problem in his new, larger office this Saturday when the Wildcats toe the line at the 2009 NCAA Cross Country Championships in Evansville, Ind.
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11.10.09 | Women's Cross Country
Spectacular. Special. Super. Those are the kinds of words that have described Tori Tyler's efforts on the cross country trails throughout her career. Saturday, simply solid did the trick. Tyler, who has been limiting her training due to nagging injuries all fall, ran in uniform for just the third time this season at the NCAA West Regional Championships Saturday in San Francisco and led the Wildcats with a sixth-place finish.
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11.7.09 | Women's Cross Country
SAN FRANCISCO – Julie Shaw’s wide smile was a bright as the All-West Region medal that hung from her neck. To her, the heavy metal was as light as a feather. She was pain free and enjoying the fruits of years of hard work despite numerous injuries and frustration. She was standing where she was meant to be Saturday – on the podium at the NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships awards podium.
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11.3.09 | Cross Country, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country
SAN FRANCISCO – The Chico State cross country team is always looking for a good place to run fast. Speedway Meadow, the site of Saturday’s NCAA West Region Cross Country Championships, surely fits that bill. The Chico State men will head to the heart of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco in search of their eighth straight regional title and 11th straight NCAA Championship berth, while the women are gunning for their fifth regional title in the last seven years and their 10th straight NCAA Championship berth. The women’s six-kilometer race starts at 9 am, and the men’s race gets under way at 10 am.
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