CHICO, Calif. – Amend Park in Billings, Montana has been a favorite path to the NCAA Championships for the Chico State men's and women's cross country teams.
 
And for the fifth time in the last decade, the Wildcats will have another opportunity to take the same road when they participate in the NCAA West Regionals on Saturday. The men's squads open the meet with a 10K run at 9 a.m. PST follow by the women's 6K at 10:15 a.m. The top three teams in each of the eight regions across the nation will advance to the NCAA Division II Championships on November 23 in Sacramento.
 
After securing the CCAA Championship for the 22nd consecutive time, the Wildcat men will be looking to continue another unprecedented streak at the NCAA West Regionals, having won the last seven meets. In fact, the Wildcats have won the regional all four times it had been held at Amend Park for the last 10 years. (2014, 2016, 2018, 2022).
 
The Wildcat men have enjoyed the 2024 season. While Gary Towne's 'A' group has taken first in all four meets they ran, including an impressive win at the 35-team field Charger Invitational on October 12, his 'B' group also had a strong performance to a second-place finish at the San Francisco State Invitational the day before. While Mario Giannini took first at the CCAA Championships for the program's 16^th time out of the last 18 seasons, two others have also made the podium. Dylan White took second at the Bill Roe Classic and Damian Garcia took the silver medal at the season-opening Kim Duyst Twilight ahead of Giannini.
 
Despite making the podium at regionals every season since returning from the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the Wildcat women are on a quest to return to the top since 2019 and capture their ninth overall in program history. The Wildcats have also captured the regional title at Amend Park on multiple occasions, with the first go-around in 2014, the second in 2016 and the third in 2018.
 
While the Wildcat women have locked up the CCAA Championship for the second consecutive season and the 19^th overall, they have also seen podium finishes at every meet, taking first at the Kim Duyst Twilight, second at both the Bill Roe Classic and the Charger Invitational while the 'B' group took third at the SF State Invite. The Molina sisters have been leading the way for the Wildcats, taking podium in all but one of the meets they run. The duo made history as the first-ever CCAA Co-Runners of the Week when in a photo-moment they crossed the finish line hand-in-hand, literally. Della would go on to win the CCAA Individual Championship with Iresh right behind her with a 0.5 second gap.
 
Both teams have held the top spot in the West Region in the United State Track & Field-Cross Country Coaches Association all season long. The men's team currently ranks sixth nationally while on the women's side they are 13^th in the country.