CHICO – The lights will be on and some of the brightest talents in men’s and women’s track & field will be on display this weekend at University Stadium, as the Wildcats play host to the annual Chico Distance Carnival and Twilight Invitational. Distance Carnival competition gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday, with the Twilight Invitational beginning with field events Saturday at 2 p.m. A complete array of running events kicks off at 4 p.m. and concludes around 10:00.
Both the Wildcat men’s and women’s teams, coming off last weekend’s successful performances at the Mustang Invitational in Stockton and the California/Oregon Border Battle, will be competing in force against athletes from over a dozen visiting schools.
Friday’s Chico Distance Carnival will consist of the men’s and women’s 800-meter run, the 3,000-meter steeplechase and the 5,000-meter run. Saturday’s Twilight Invitational will feature several sprinting and relay events, along with the 800- and 1,500-meter run.
Field events Saturday include the men’s and women’s long jump, high jump, triple jump, pole vault, hammer throw, discus, javelin and shot put.
The Chico State women will have 42 athletes competing this weekend, with most entered in multiple events. Jessica Mixon is set to run the 100-meter hurdles, 200-meter run and 4x400 relay, plus take part in the high jump, long jump and javelin. Robin Hannah will compete in five events on Saturday (200-meter run, 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays, high jump and long jump), while Kasey Barnett, Gabrielle Finley-Vaquera and Amilia Santos will each participate in four.
Friday six Wildcats – Aja Erskine, Natalie Galvan, Ayla Granados, Lora James, Jordan Walsh and Olivia Watt – will toe the starting line for the 800-meter run, with 12 taking part in the 5,000-meter run. Saturday, no less than 16 ’Cats – Galvan, Granados, James, Walsh, Watt, Bekah Bahra, Brittany Balcom, Paige Henker, Hillary LaBelle, Jackie Mansoor, Sara Mikesell, Amy Schnittger, Hayley Swanson, Xiang Tak, Jessie Varella and Jonah Weeks – will compete in the 5k.
On the men’s side, J. Patrick Smith is confirmed to take part in six events during Saturday’s Twilight Invitational (100- and 200-meter dash, 4x100- and 4x400-meter relays, long jump and javelin), as is Adam Nikssarian and Teddy Elsenbaumer. In field events, Derek Nichols and Dallas Wilson will compete in the shot put, discus and hammer throw.
The Wildcat distance runners will also participate en masse at University Stadium. Friday Germay Tesfai, Daniel Parker and Anthony Palermini are entered in the 800-meter run, with nine Chico State runners – Dayne Gradone, Anthony Costales, Adrian Sherrod, Alex McGuirk, Johnny Sanchez, Geoffrey Bogan, Rogan Meza, Dillon Breen and Geoff Hull – competing in the 5k.
Saturday the Wildcats will race Breen, Hull, Bogan and Sanchez in the men’s seeded 1,500-meter run, with Parker, Costales, Tesfai, Gradone, Palermini, McGuirk and Isaac Chavez competing in the 1,500-meter invitational event. Chico State will feature five athletes – Dalton McBride, Pardeep Sandhu, Taylor Torretto, Ryan Utnehmer and Justin Woo – taking part in the pole vault.
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE DISTANCE CARNIVAL/TWILIGHT INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE
CLICK HERE FOR EVENT ENTRIES/HEATS
