Wildcats Claim 18th Straight Team Title, but Individual Honors Head South to San Marcos
2019 CCAA Men's Cross Country Championships race results (.pdf)
At Chico State, everyone knows “ain’t no runner like a Chico runner,” and for the 18th straight season, they proved that at the 2019 CCAA Men’s Cross Country Championships.
Head coach Gary Towne’s squad took home the team title after racking up eight top-15 finishers in the event, each named All-CCAA performers at Baywood Golf & Country Club in Arcata.
While the team streak may have remained intact, the string of 11 consecutive individuals titles was broken, as Cal State San Marcos senior Joshua Litwiller played spoiler and beat out Chico State’s Trad Berti by 10 seconds to cruise to the victory. Litwiller, coming off an injury that nearly prevented him from competing in 2019, won the 8,000-meter championship race in 24 minutes, 40.28 seconds, pacing the Cougars to their highest ever team finish in their fourth year of CCAA postseason competition.
Litwiller battled with Berti from the outset to lead the race, and after the first 2K, the Cougar had claimed the lead. By 4K, Berti had the official advantage as the top four runners were within a half second of each other as Litwiller was clocked in third in the tighly-bunched pack. But then the race broke in favor of Litwiller, who smiled his way through the final half of the competition to cross the line with the decisive victory.
“This is definitely like a dream come true. Its like me and Joaquin [Martinez de Panillos] all over again,” Litwiller said about his finish. "CIF San Diego we went into that race and we battled it out and I ended up winning that one in high school my last year, and now God’s just brought me to win this one my senior year so it really is like a dream."
Following Berti’s runner-up finish for Chico State, the Wildcats were helped to the top of the team standings by a fifth-place run for Matthew Hererra as Jhavahn Holston crossed in sixth. Remington Breeze landed in ninth with Rory Abberton rounding out the Wildcats’ scorers in 11th. Another grouping of Chico State runners earned All-CCAA honors with Raymond Lopez, Wyatt Baxter and Jack Emanuel taking 13th, 14th and 15th, respectively.
For Hererra, the dedication and commitment to race for Towne’s top-flight program paid off. The San Bruno native was just a spectator at last year’s conference meet, narrowly missing out on the chance to race as one of the Wildcats’ top 10. But when Towne slipped him into the lineup during his junior campaign, Hererra took advantage of the opportunity and was able to help his team claim the title.
UC San Diego enjoyed a pair of All-CCAA performances in Aren Johnson (3rd) and Sam Blake (7th) as the Tritons earned third in the team standings in their 20th and final season in the conference before moving to the NCAA Division I Big West. Joseph Macareno of Stanislaus State, Cal Poly Pomona’s Eamon Smythe and Shea Vavra of Cal State San Marcos each earned a place on the all-conference team along with what elicited perhaps the most boisterous moment of the awards ceremony as Daniel Tull of host Humboldt State claimed his medal for a top-10 performance for the Jacks.
Litwiller’s victory clinched him Runner of the Year hardware, and first-year collegian Joseph Macareno claimed Freshman of the Year after racing to fourth for the Warriors. Newcomer of the Year belonged to team title-winner Abberton of Chico State, the third straight Wildcat to claim the award and the ninth in the last 11 years.
Cal Poly Pomona’s Jeremiah Suzara collected the prestigious Championship Scholar Award, honoring the individual who has reached the conference championship level in his or her sport, while also achieving the highest academic standard among his or her peers. The award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the final CCAA championship site in each conference-sponsored sport. Suzara is a junior biology major hailing from Chula Vista.
Next up, teams from the CCAA join fellow region competitors at the NCAA West Region Championships on Saturday, Nov. 9 at Ash Creek Preserve in Monmouth, Ore. Teams and individuals will be vying for a place at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships, slated to take place Nov. 23 at Sacramento’s Haggin Oaks GC. The 2019 season marks the first time the state of California has hosted the final event of the season since 2005.
2019 CCAA Men’s Cross Country Awards:
Runner of the Year: Joshua Litwiller, Cal State San Marcos
Freshman of the Year: Joseph Macareno, Stanislaus State
Newcomer of the Year: Rory Abberton, Chico State
Championship Scholar: Jeremiah Suzara, Cal Poly Pomona
| 2019 CCAA Men's Cross Country Championship Results |
| Place |
Team |
Points (scores) |
| 1 |
Chico State |
33 (2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13*, 148) |
| 2 |
Cal State San Marcos |
72 (1, 12, 16, 19, 24, 42*, 50*) |
| 3 |
UC San Diego |
80 (3, 7, 15, 27, 28, 32*, 35*) |
| 4 |
Cal Poly Pomona |
86 (7, 17, 18, 21, 22, 30*, 33*) |
| 5 |
Stanislaus State |
119 (4, 23, 25, 26, 41, 44*, 47*) |
| 6 |
Humboldt State |
177 (10, 38, 40, 43, 46, 49*, 54*) |
| 7 |
Cal State East Bay |
220 (29, 34, 48, 51, 58, 59*, 66*) |
| 8 |
San Francisco State |
236 (31, 45, 52, 53, 55, 57*, 62*) |
| 9 |
Cal State LA |
237 (20, 36, 56, 61, 64, 68*, 70*) |
| 10 |
Cal State Monterey Bay |
264 (37, 39, 60, 63, 65, 67*, 69*) |
| 2019 Men's Cross Country All-CCAA Team |
| Place |
Athlete (School) |
Time |
| 1 |
Josh Litwiller (CSUSM) |
24:40.28 |
| 2 |
Trad Berti (CHICO) |
24:50.23 |
| 3 |
Aren Johnson (UCSD) |
25:01.02 |
| 4 |
Joseph Macareno (STAN) |
25:04.03 |
| 5 |
Matthew Herrera (CHICO) |
25:06.25 |
| 6 |
Jhavahn Holston (CHICO) |
25:08.26 |
| 7 |
Sam Blake (UCSD) |
25:08.86 |
| 8 |
Eamon Smythe (CPP) |
25:12.00 |
| 9 |
Remington Breeze (CHICO) |
25:13.38 |
| 10 |
Daniel Tull (HSU) |
25:15.21 |
| 11 |
Rory Abberton (CHICO) |
25:16.67 |
| 12 |
Shea Vavra (CSUSM) |
25:18.12 |
| 13 |
Raymond Lopez (CHICO) |
25:18.45 |
| 14 |
Wyatt Baxter (CHICO) |
25:18:90 |
| 15 |
Jack Emanuel (CHICO) |
25:24.23 |