Published 2006-11-07T00:00:00Z”/>

Becky Regan

Nov. 4, 2006The men’s and women’s cross country teams turned in top performances at the Division II West Region Championships today and clenched qualifying positions in the NCAA Championships.

About 300 runners from 19 women’s teams and 17 men’s teams met at the Lake Oroville Forebay Aquatics Center Saturday morning to find out who’s the best of the west. The Chico State men finished first while the women took fourth. Both were finishes that will propel each team to the NCAA Division II Championships in Pensacola, Fla., held on Nov. 18.

The men’s team took first place in the 10k with an 84-point difference between the Wildcats and second place Cal Poly Pomona. The win was the men’s fifth straight regional title.

Men’s cross country teams from Alaska Anchorage, Western Washington University and University of California at San Diego finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.

Four Wildcats finished in the top 10 – Charlie Serrano in second (32.09.72), Antonio Miramontes in third (32.13.89), Scott Bauhs in sixth (32.13.42) and Kyle Ivie in eighth (32.51.87). The Chico men also had help from Rory Kuykendall finishing 13th, Tim Tollefson finishing 20th and Michael Wickman in 25th.

After the race, Serrano and Bauhs both said they had pushed too hard too early and they didn’t run a smart race. But getting the bad-timing jitters out of the way at regionals may be a good thing because both runners said they won’t make the same mistakes at the championship.

“Hopefully, I’ll come away with a top 10 finish, and hopefully it will be ahead of the guy who beat me today,” Serrano said.

Bauhs was disappointed with his six-place finish, but he was impressed with teammate Miramontes’ run.

“The harder the course, the more it favors him,” Bauhs said of Miramontes. “Other people have a lot of raw speed and can go faster than him on flatter courses or shorter distances, but when other people start hurting, he’s hurting less.”

Mary Torres from the women’s team was also hurting less. Torres breezed in for a second-place finish and was holding her son, smiling while the competition was still stumbling over the finish line throwing up.

Chico State’s women’s team placed fourth in the 6k and turned in two top 10 finishes – Torres’ second place (20.56.93) and Sarah Montez’s eighth place (21.39.93).

Lindsay Nelson finished 13th (21.53.72) and Aisha Kamala came in at 24th (22.17.66) for the Wildcats.

First place went to Jessica Pixler (20.46.10), an undefeated first-year student from Seattle Pacific. Seattle Pacific finished second overall behind Cal State LA, but in front of San Diego and Chico.

This will be the second consecutive trip to the NCAA Championships for both the men and women’s teams.

For more details on the West Regional Championships, check The Orion print edition on Wednesday.

Becky Regan can be reached at

<a href=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>