Published 2007-10-09T00:00:00Z”/>

Antonia Nunes

This weekend the men and women’s cross country teams left their top runners behind to compete for the last two spots on this season’s conference team.

Head coach Gary Towne’s pre-race predictions were fulfilled: the men repeated last year’s first-place finish, and the women improved three spots from last year to finish third.

Although Chico State sent only partial squads to compete at the San Francisco Invitational, it sent some capable athletes to the line, and they were motivated to earn their spot on the team, Towne said.

“The cream sort of rises to the top in these situations,” Towne said.

Even though only two will be added to the conference team, with development many could compete next year, Towne said.

Saturday was also a revenge race for those competing.

Berkeley’s A team beat the ‘Cats last weekend. But on Saturday, the ‘Cats trumped the Bear’s B team by seven points and crushed San Francisco State.

The men’s team led the pack with a team score of 33 points to finish first; the women tied for third.

In the men’s eight-kilometer race, Jordan Fairley finished sixth overall with a time of 25 minutes, 42 seconds. Ruben Alvidrez trailed right behind him with a time of 25:44, followed by Jeff Wilson at 25:46.

The first ‘Cat across the line in the women’s five-kilometer was Lindsay Brown, who finished 18th with a time of 23:39. Julie Shaw finished 21st, crossing the finish line in 23:46.

Despite the Wildcats’ success, the outcome was unfortunate for senior Nick Clinton, who finished last among the Chico State men and 16th overall.

Saturday was Clinton’s last chance to make it on the conference team. Although he raced in championships last year, over-training contributed to a less than perfect season this year, he said.

“This is probably my last cross country race in a Chico State uniform,” said Clinton, who is in his last year on the team.

But Clinton was happy to see that everyone ran as a team on Saturday, even if it was “a do or die” race for some, and “it definitely lit a fire under them,” he said.

“We had a group of guys running together for the entire race,” he said. “I knew everyone was going to race well today.”

Although Clinton won’t be on the conference team, he’s still going to root for the ‘Cats. Following cross country tradition, he’ll probably be in one of the vans with fans painted up driving out to Joplin, Mo., for the NCAA championships in mid-November.

The cross country team continues its season next weekend with the Folsom Challenge on Saturday before heading to the California Collegiate Athletic Association Championships on Oct. 20 in Turlock.

Antonia Nunes can be reached at <a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>