DAVIS, Calif. – The usual suspects sporting cardinal and white sailed around the track as the Chico State men’s distance crew officially opened its season in the Aggie Open 3,000-meter race Saturday in Davis. An impressive pair of newcomers even joined them. Five Wildcats finished in the top seven of one heat and true freshman Daniel Parker won the other.

NCAA Cross Country All-American Isaac Chavez led the Wildcats across in the line in section one, covering the 3,000 meters in 8:20.44 and finishing second overall. Anthony Costales (8:20.60) was right behind him, while Brent Handa (8:21.91) finished fifth, senior Australian exchange student Julian Spence (8:21.93) was sixth, and senior Manny Mejia (8:36.43) finished ninth.

Parker, who crossed the street from Chico State to run as a collegiate at Chico State broke the tape in section two in 8:38.99.

The 3,000-meter races are looked at as a jumping in point for the Chico State distance squad and provided a gauge for the athletes to check their readiness for big-time competition like the Stanford Invitational, which takes place in two weeks.

Following are some other notable Chico State performances from Saturday: Isaiah Haywood won the third heat and Jordan Alford-Helems the fourth in the 200 meters. Haywood finished sixth overall with a time of 22.19, while Alford-Helems came in 10th at 22.42. Oliver Shabram finished third in the 400-meter hurdles in 54.85 and Jon-Michael Delima was sixth in 57.39. Talor Fulfer finished fourth in the javelin. Matt Sloggy was fifth in the 400 meters.

No results for the high jump, discus or pole vault were available by 9 PM, when yours truly cuddled up with his lovely wife for a romantic comedy. I’ll update those results tomorrow if they become available.

AGGIE OPEN RESULTS