Results
MCKINLEYVILLE — Senior
Joey Nunes is an All-CCAA cross country runner for the second consecutive year as he finished eighth at the 2009 California Collegiate Athletic Association Cross Country Championships on Saturday.
Nunes was among the lead pack and clocked a career-best 25:35.8 in the 8,000-meter run. Last year the junior college transfer from Livermore finished 12th at the CCAA Championships. Top 15 finishers earn All-conference honors.
"Like Denali and Rubye, Joey also did a great job leading the team. Everyone came out and took care of business and did a great job up here," head coach Diljeet Taylor said. "I am proud of both teams. We have an extremely tough conference and both of our teams battled hard today."
As a team, the Warrior men finished fourth, edging UC San Diego by one point in the standings. Cal State Stanislaus finished fifth last season.
Chico State placed six runners in the Top 10 to capture the men's team title that were contested at the Beau Pre Golf Course in McKinleyville and hosted by Humboldt State.
The Wildcats tallied 20 points to finish ahead of second-place Cal Poly Pomona (53). Humboldt State (75) was third and followed by Cal State Stanislaus (118), UC San Diego (119), San Francisco State (149) and Cal State Monterey Bay (220).
The team championship marked the eighth in a row for the Wildcats, who were led by individual champion Jimmy Elam. The Chico State senior concluded the 8-kilometer race in a time of 24:50.3 to win the individual title.
Elam finished ahead teammate Brent Handa, who placed second in a time of 24:57.2. Cal Poly Pomonas Jersain Torres (25.01.3) was third and followed by Chico States Beau Gradone-Rogers (25:02.9) and Matt Prentice of Cal Poly Pomona, who rounded out the top five with a time of 25:09.8
Warrior sophomore
Dawson Vorderbruegge missed out on an All-CCAA finish by 12 seconds as he placed 19th in 26:15.1.
Shane Brookshire was instrumental in the team's fourth place finish as he passed three runners in the final 100-meters to help the Warriors beat UCSD by one point.
Also contributing to the team's finish were
Ivan Bojorquez (36th, 27:20.1), Palmer Thiele (37th, 27:21.3),
Kanwar Dhaliwal (39th, 27:32.7) and
Tyler Thiele (43rd, 27:43.8).
Elam was named Runner of the Year while his Chico State teammate Brent Handa was Newcomer of the Year and Luis Galicia of Humboldt State was Freshman of the Year. Galicia finished 18th after clocking a time of 26:12.3.
Chico State head coach Gary Towne was named Coach of the Year.
2009 California Collegiate Athletic Association All-Conference
Jimmy Elam (Chico State)
Brent Handa (Chico State)
Jersain Torres (Cal Poly Pomona)
Beau Gradone-Rogers (Chico State)
Matt Prentice (Cal Poly Pomona)
Michael Wickman (Chico State)
Brendan Scanlon (Chico State)
Joey Nunes (Cal State Stanislaus)
Mariano Baez (Cal Poly Pomona)
Alan Campos (Chico State)
Eric Malain (Humboldt State)
Joey Kochlacs (Chico State)
Stephen Kent (Cal Poly Pomona)
Alex Sharp (Chico State)
Adrian Sherrod (Chico State)
Runner of the Year: Jimmy Elam (Chico State)
Newcomer of the Year: Brent Handa (Chico State)
Freshman of the Year: Luis Galicia (Humboldt State)