Elam tops all runners as Wildcats capture eighth consecutive CCAA cross country championship

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Elam tops all runners as Wildcats capture eighth consecutive CCAA cross country championship

Jimmy Elam paced the Wildcats with a first place finish in Saturday's CCAA Men's Cross Country Championships.

10/24/2009 4:58:29 PM

McKINLEYVILLE, Calif. – Chico State entered Saturday’s California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Men’s Cross Country Championships as the favorite to hoist the conference banner, and the Wildcats made sure not to disappoint. With Jimmy Elam taking top individual honors and six Chico State runners finishing in the top 10 at Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville, the Wildcats easily brought home the conference crown for the eighth straight year.

Chico State, ranked No. 3 nationally and first in the West Region, dominated the seven school, 68 runner field, with the Wildcats posting 10 of the best 16 finish times. Elam won the 8-kilometer men’s race by nearly seven seconds with a time of 24:50.3, earning CCAA Runner of the Year honors.

Junior Brent Handa finished second to Elam with a time of 24:57.2 and was named the conference’s Newcomer of the Year.

Other Wildcat runners who received All-CCAA recognition were Beau Gradone-Rogers, whose time of 25:02.9 was good for fourth place. Michael Wickman came in sixth (25:17.7), with Brendan Scanlon finishing seventh with a time of 25:35.0. Alan Campos rounded out the race’s top 10, clocking in at 25:38.6. Joey Kochlacs also earned All-CCAA honors with his 12th place finish (25:42.5), as did 14th place Alex Sharp (25:56.3) and Adrian Sherrod, who came in 15th with a time of 26:03.2.

Thomas Whitcomb also notched an impressive run but missed out on All-CCAA accolades by less than four seconds, finishing in 16th place with a time of 26:07.1.

Chico State tallied 20 points as a team to finish a comfortable 33 points ahead of runner-up Cal Poly Pomona. Following the race, the Wildcats’ Gary Towne was named the CCAA Cross Country Coach of the Year.

COMPLETE RESULTS

Chico State will now begin preparing for the NCAA West Regionals, taking place Saturday, November 7 in San Francisco.

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Wildcats of the Week

Caressa Williams

Women's Basketball

For much of the season, redshirt freshman Caressa Williams has been sitting at the end of the Chico State women’s basketball team bench, seeing very little on-court action. But the former Paradise High School star continued to work hard on her game, and the extra effort has paid off in recent weeks with significantly more playing time. After a string of short but impressive relief roles, Williams delivered a breakout performance Saturday against Humboldt State, posting career highs in scoring and rebounding in the Wildcats’ 90-67 thumping of Humboldt State. Her strongest effort to date makes Williams the latest Wildcat of the Week.

Williams shot over 58 percent (7-of-12), averaging just under 10 points and five rebounds in Chico State’s two weekend contests. She began the weekend with a solid outing Friday against Sonoma State, contributing five points, two rebounds, one assist and two steals in 16 minutes of action. Saturday, though, she was a major part of the Wildcat reserves combining to score 51 in the team’s convincing 23-point win over Humboldt. Williams played 24 minutes, scoring 14 points and hauling in seven rebounds – both career highs – connecting on five of her seven field goal attempts. She also chipped in with an assist and a steal in addition to shining on the defensive end.

Williams’ productive weekend saw her season scoring average more than double, rising from 1.6 to 3.6 points per game. Overall, she is shooting 50 percent from the field and is averaging two rebounds a contest.

Chico State is back in action this weekend, hosting Cal Poly Pomona Friday and San Francisco State Saturday at Acker Gym. Both games are scheduled to tipoff at 5:30 p.m.

Amir Carraway

Men's Basketball

Amir Carraway capped a strong weekend with team highs of 16 points and seven rebounds in the Wildcats’ huge win against Humboldt State Saturday night to earn Wildcat of the Week honors for the second time this season.

The sophomore from Vallejo made two game-sealing free throws with 21 seconds left to finish the night 6-of-7 from the free throw line and pulled down key rebounds on two of the Lumberjacks’ last three possessions. He also set the screen on Jay Flores’ dagger 3-pointer with 40 seconds left.

Carraway finished with 10 points and four rebounds despite playing just 18 minutes due to foul trouble during the Wildcats’ loss to Sonoma State the night before.

The 6-foot-5 forward leads the team in rebounding at 5.5 per game and ranks second in scoring at 10.6 points per game a season after averaging just 1.4 points and one rebound in only 5.4 minutes a night. He’s now led the team in scoring five times and rebounding six this season.

Carraway and the Wildcats, among four teams tied for second in the California Collegiate Athletic Association standings, trail conference co-leaders Cal Poly Pomona and Cal State Dominguez Hills by just one game. They’ll welcome Cal Poly Pomona to town Friday night and San Francisco State Saturday.

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Gradone wins All-America and Wildcat of the Week honors

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How do you spell respect? H-A-R-D-W-A-R-E baby!

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Watch the 'Cats run live at the NCAA Championships

The track my be snowy but the picture should be clear if you click on NCAA.com to watch the Chico State cross country teams run at the 2011 NCAA Championships today in Spokane, Wash. The women run at 11 a.m. and the men at noon.

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Will 13 be lucky for Wildcats?

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Chico State men’s cross country team is hoping its 13th straight trip to the NCAA Championships is full of good fortune. The Wildcats, ranked No. 6 in the nation heading into the race, certainly won’t turn down any luck that falls their way as they fight for their sixth podium finish in the last nine years against a stacked field. The Wildcats have never finished lower than ninth during that time.

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