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Towne earns 12th West Region Coach of the Year honor
11/20/2009 10:54:17 AM
NEW ORLEANS –Chico State Cross Country Coach Gary Towne will have to settle for one U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association West Region Coach of the Year honor this season. Towne, the winner of a dozen such awards in his nearly 14 years of coaching cross country, was recently named the West Region men’s coach of the Year.
Towne has guided the Wildcats to their eighth consecutive West Region title, eighth consecutive California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) title, and 10th straight berth in the NCAA Championships this season. His men’s team is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation, and his women’s team is No. 5. They’ll both toe the line at the NCAA Championships Saturday in Evansville, Ind.
The Wildcats kicked off this season by winning the Division-I heavy Asics/UC Irvine Invitational. They also won the Willamette Invitational, the CCAA Championship, and West Region Championship, while finishing fourth in the Division I-dominated Stanford Invitational and fourth in the San Francisco State Invitational with the Wildcats’ “B” team.
Towne, a 1991 graduate of Chico State, also serves as the distance coach for the Wildcats’ consistently successful track & field teams.
In his 13-plus seasons at the helm, Towne has coached 62 track & field All-Americans, including 2007 National Track Champions Scott Bauhs (10k) and Charlie Serrano (5k) and 2008 National Track Champions Bauhs (5K) and Sarah Montez (3K). On the trails, Towne has coached 140 cross country All-Conference runners, 96 All-Region runners, and 33 All-Americans, with Bauhs winning the 2008 National Championship.
Eighteen of Towne’s cross country teams have finished in the top 10 in the nation at the National Championships (his last 10 men’s teams and eight of his women’s teams). Last year, the women’s team finished seventh in the nation for its eighth top-10 performance in the last nine years. The men, meanwhile, finished third in the nation, which marked the program’s seventh straight top six finish and 10th consecutive top-10 performance.
Towne’s teams have collected 13 CCAA cross country championships (eight straight for the men, five for the women) and 12 West Regional titles (eight straight for the men, four for the women).
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Wildcats of the Week
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Men's Track
As a decathlete, Brian Beeman is used to running all over the place. But he took it to a new level last week. After competing in the decathlon, high jump and javelin to help lead the Chico State men’s track & field team to the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championship March 6-8, he got on a bus and arrived back in Chico in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Then, he turned around to head back to Southern California for the Claremont Classic Decathlon and turned in an NCAA Provisional Qualifying mark and personal best score of 6,512 on Thursday and Friday.
That iron-man feet has earned him Wildcat of the Week honors.
Beeman finished sixth at the Burns Track and Field Complex while logging the 15th best score in the nation this year. He won the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:31.75, placed third in the 400-meter dash (51.19 seconds) and tied for third in the high jump (6-feet-02.75).
Beeman and a number of his Wildcats teammates now await Wednesday morning’s NCAA Track and Field Championships selection show to found out if he’s earned a berth to the National Championships May 27-29 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Softball
Kacie McCarthy’s freshman season as a Wildcat has been filled with highlights, but the Shingletown native turned in her most memorable performances of the year last weekend in the NCAA West Sub-Regional at Sonoma State, posting three straight victories and helping Chico State advance to the West Super Regional in Hawaii. The Wildcats are just two wins away from reaching the Division II College World Series, thanks in large part to the pitching prowess of McCarthy, who is the latest recipient of Wildcat of the Week honors.
In Friday’s Sub-Regional opener, McCarthy took over for Chico State starter Jessica McDermott and tossed seven-and-a-third innings of relief, striking out a career-high 11 batters and earning the win as the Wildcats beat 15th ranked Grand Canyon University 5-4 in eight innings. In Saturday’s winner’s bracket game versus No. 14 Sonoma State, McCarthy twirled a one-hit shutout in Chico State’s 7-0 victory over the host Seawolves. Sunday McCarthy completed the postseason trifecta, going the distance for the 18th time this year and getting credit for the “W” as the ’Cats rallied back from three runs down to score four times in the bottom of the sixth inning and pull out a 4-3 victory over Dixie State to sweep through the Sub-Regional and advance to this weekend’s West Super Regional.
McCarthy, now 16-10 on the season, lowered her season ERA to 1.92 with the three weekend wins and is ranked third among California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) pitchers. She also is sixth in the conference in victories and innings pitched (164.1). She leads the Wildcats in wins, complete games, innings pitched and appearances (29).
Chico State takes on the No. 3 ranked Sea Warriors of Hawaii Pacific Friday at 5 p.m. Pacific time in the opener of the West Super Regional in Kaneohe, Hawaii. The winner of the best-of-three set will advance to the Division II College World Series May 27-31 in St. Joseph, Missouri.
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6.22.10 | Men's Cross Country
CHICO – Thanks to the tireless recruiting efforts of Head Coach Gary Towne, the 2010 Chico State men’s cross country team has been strengthened significantly with an array of talented runners, as high school standouts Tommy McGuan, Johnny Sanchez, Dylan Anthony and Alan Cuevas, along with junior college transfers Joseph Rivera and Anthony Costales, have signed their National Letter of Intent to compete for the Wildcats this fall.
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11.24.09 | Men's Cross Country
Jimmy Elam could not stand on his own after crossing the finish line in 15th place at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships. He was in tremendous pain. It hurt so good. "It was a pretty cool experience knowing that I actually gave it everything I had in my last college cross country race," he said afterward.
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11.21.09 | Men's Cross Country
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – While most of Jimmy Elam’s peers at Humboldt State were mulling over where to get a good, cheap meal, which classes to take, or who to have as a roommate, he was making one of the toughest, boldest, and in some senses, the costliest decision of his young life. After spending his first three years in college at Humboldt State, Elam decided to transfer to Chico State for his senior season.
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11.20.09 | Men's Cross Country
NEW ORLEANS –Chico State Cross Country Coach Gary Towne will have to settle for one U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association West Region Coach of the Year honor this season. Towne, the winner of a dozen such awards in his nearly 14 years of coaching cross country, was recently named the West Region men’s coach of the Year.
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11.19.09 | General
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 | Men's Cross Country
Alan Campos styled his hair wildly and colored the tips of three longer rows red before Saturday's NCAA West Regional Cross Country Championships Saturday in San Francisco. But every long-time Chico State fan knew better than to get distracted. To truly see Campos, one must look at his heart.
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11.7.09 | Men's Cross Country
SAN FRANCISCO – Golden Gate Park took on a decidedly cardinal hue Saturday. The Chico State men’s cross country team, adorned in the school colors of cardinal and white, dominated the 2009 West Region Cross Country Championships to claim their eighth straight regional title as an estimated 200-plus Wildcats fans, alumni, and family members sporting Chico State t-shirts, sweatshirts, and signs cheered them on with chants of “Cheeeecooo! Cheeeecooo!” and “Che-co! You know!”
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