Chico State Athletics

It was cold. It was early. So early it was still dark outside. But Rocky Balboa donned his gray sweat suit, downed a raw egg, and headed out on a run, lumbering down the road, deserted but for the garbage cans waiting to be collected, and a few cats.
 
For Chico State distance runner and film buff Raymond Lopez—whose gait is much more graceful and whose frame is significantly slimmer—Rocky Balboa is at once a sort of hero and a cautionary tale. He's the up and coming underdog who achieves more than almost anyone expected he could. But, he is also the one who gets caught up in the circumstances and forgets what put him on top in the first place.
 
"Of that series, Rocky II is my favorite," Lopez explains. "Rocky loses to the up-and-coming underdog who wants it more than he does. Then he learns to humble himself and learns to truly work hard again. You never want to lose your humility or you will lose yourself in your ego and accomplishments."
 
So, Lopez runs. When he's not working one of his long shifts at Target, taking a quiz, or writing a paper, he runs. There was no cross country season. There may not be a track season. But he runs. When our Wildcat of the Week gets a few hours off, he loves to watch a movie and good movie trivia. His favorite films are "The Prestige" and "Uncut Gems."
 
"I give Ray a lot of credit," said Chico State Head Cross Country Coach Gary Towne. "There are a fair number of people who are really struggling, and they have a right to. This has been a difficult thing to handle. I'm just really impressed with how Raymond has handled it. He's hammering away on his classes and he's working close to full time and working some crazy shifts. He doesn't know what the future holds. But he doesn't skip a beat with getting the work in. It's impressive."
 
Lopez worked during his time at Glendale Community College, so when he got a job at Target last March, he settled back into that school-work-run routine.
 
"It's all just a matter of getting your scheduling and timing down," Lopez said. "When it's time to do homework, you do it. When it's time to run, you run. When it's time to work, you work. It's very smooth and sequential now."
 
Lopez transferred to Chico State from Glendale Community College (where he earned back-to-back California Community College Athletic Association Cross Country and 10-kilometer All-America honors) in the fall of 2018. After redshirting in his first year at Chico State, he earned All-conference honors as a junior at the 2019 California Collegiate Athletic Association Cross Country Championships, helping lead the Wildcats to their record-elongating 18th consecutive CCAA title.
 
An injury sustained during the NCAA Regional Championships ended his season, however. Just one step before the National Championships. Lopez's roommate, Rory Abberton, ran in his place and helped lead the Wildcats to a historic third-place finish.
 
"Rory was having such a good season at that point, so when he went to the national meet and ran in my place it was completely awesome," said Lopez. "I would have rather it go the way it did and for us to get third place as a team than for me to have been able to run but our team not to get the same result. I would do it again for the team if I was in the same place."
 
Towne says that Lopez's attitude was a key ingredient to the Wildcats' success that day.
 
"There was never a point where he was feeling sorry for himself. That can really bring the group down," Towne said. "Before and after the race it was all positive. On a day he could have been really down, instead he added to our positive experience as a team. I really appreciated that."
 
The event changed Lopez's routine for the better as well.
 
"I realized that the injury was at least partially because I wasn't doing all I needed to do," Lopez said. "I've definitely learned from it. I've invested in weights and dedicated more time to stretching and some other exercises."
 
After the cancellation of the 2019 track and field season due to COVID-19, Lopez would love nothing more than to compete on the track for the Wildcats in 2020. If that does not come to pass, he's mulling his options for the future. He could return for one last hurrah, but "realistically, there would be a lot of hurdles to that," Lopez explained.
 
One thing that's not up for debate, however, is Lopez's graduation plans. He will graduate this spring with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and minor in psychology.
 
Lopez also plans to pursue running post-collegiately. Towne thinks he has what it takes to be successful, as many of his former student-athletes have.
 
"We've talked about his future goals and geared his training toward that," Towne said. "He did a 20-mile time trial this fall and we've talked about (Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier) Anthony Costales and how we could groom his path toward something similar. He definitely understands the importance of building and not taking time off or coasting. He's always trying to get better, even during these tough times. He has the kind of attitude you need to pull off running post-collegiately. I could see him continue down that road and hopefully he'll have some good success with it."
 
Lopez is also considering a job in law enforcement.
 
"I would love to eventually work for a federal agency, like the Drug Enforcement Administration or Department of Fish and Game," he said.
 
But for now, he's soaking up his time as a collegiate distance runner, even if it's not quite what he imagined it would be.
 
"I've enjoyed my Chico experience a lot. The coaching and my teammates; it's been really fun," he said. "I've learned a lot and grown a lot. I wouldn't have received this experience anywhere else. I'm grateful to have come here."
 
Admittedly surprised by how "real" Chico State's distance program's advertised close-knit culture is, Lopez has been especially impressed by it during the fall semester.
 
"We still keep in contact as much as we can and all talk," Lopez said. "I came back from a run about an hour ago and ran into Wyatt (Baxter) and Matt (Herrera) and had a good time talking to them. We've been training pretty consistently together, safely of course. It's been really nice to do that.
 
"No matter how things end up, I'll still look back on this as a special time."

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