Marissa Kuik
Sep 6, 20237 min
Written by Marissa Kuik, additional commentary & edits by Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
As a young team with only one graduating senior, the Chico State women fared quite well on the national stage a year ago. The Wildcats had a smidge of upfront firepower, respectable depth and a defined lineup structure, all of which led to a top-half team finish in Seattle which was just outside of the top-10.
But now that they return five of those seven women, with several of them having ample eligibility and upside, Chico State has clear room for further improvement.
With everyone a year older, this group certainly has the looks of a top-10 team. And who knows? With most of the women in this lineup now holding national meet experience, the Wildcats could be one of the biggest surprises of the 2023 cross country season.
One of the strengths of the Wildcats last year, as it will be this year, is their depth. They never really had a set top-five throughout their 2022 fall campaign, but if one woman struggled in a race, there was often another to fill in.
Chico State opened up their season considerably later than many other teams, running the Cougar Challenge on September 24th. After venturing roughly 10 hours down I-5, they finished 2nd overall, just behind rival Stanislaus State.
Freshman Hannah Tiffany led the team that day with a 5th place finish, followed by another pair of rookies, the Molina twins (Della and Iresh), who were 7th and 8th, respectively. Rounding out the rest of the scorers were Hannah Ryan (13th) and Marissa D’Atri (14th).
Seeing the team being led by freshmen in their opening meet definitely pointed to promise among the underclassmen and suggested a high level of maturity for those first-year athletes to compete so well in more competitive meets.
Those three youngsters continued to play a pivotal role for Chico State throughout the rest of the season -- and the veterans would only get better as well.
After their opening race, the Wildcats contested the Santa Clara Bronco Invitational against what was largely a Division One field. They fared admirably, finishing 7th overall on the strength of their depth. All five scorers were within 25 spots of each other as Della and Iresh Molina led the way in 34th and 35th, respectively.
Overall, it was a solid outing for the Chico State women, but it was also hard to get a gauge of just how good they were relative to top D2 programs. Luckily, we would learn much more at their next meet.
A later trip to Seattle for D2 Pre-Nationals was the team's next race. There, the Wildcats finished a strong 4th place overall.
Veteran Marissa D’Atri led the team and ended up filling that low-stick role for the rest of the season. She placed 14th overall while Gracie Dupuis and Hannah Tiffany held down the middle-lineup spots in 32nd and 33rd place, respectively.
The Molina twins ended up not racing in the Emerald City, potentially leaving some points out there. But if the Wildcats were able to fare so well without their high-rising sister duo, then the prospects for this team in the postseason were only going to grow stronger.
At the CCAA XC Championships, Chico State battled with Stanislaus State and ended up in a silver-medal position yet again. D’Atri led the way with a strong 4th place finish while Iresh Molina finished a very impressive 10th place overall. Dupuis and Tiffany were right behind her in 11th and 12th, respectively. The rest of the lineup finished next to each other, taking places 15-16-17-18.
The Wildcats' conference meet was a solid showing, but it was clear that this group needed more firepower to truly contend with the 10-best cross country teams in the nation.
At the West Regional XC Championships, the Wildcats were not grouped as closely, but they still managed to finish near each other as they yet again finished behind the Warriors. That race, however, was secondary to what lied ahead.
The Wildcats returned to Seattle for the NCAA XC Championships. On that stage, D’Atri had a stellar day, finishing 14th overall to give her team a massive boost in low-stick scoring. The rest of the team performed solidly behind her, but the inexperience of many of their athletes definitely left some scoring gaps.
Tiffany finished as the second scorer in 81st place, yet another example of how the Wildcats were limited on true firepower after D'Atri. Fortunately, the rest of Chico State's top-five crossed the line fairly soon after each other.
Dellas Molina finished in 92nd, Katie Hawley placed 106th and Iresh Molina closed out the team's scoring in 133rd place. All of that helped Chico State take 12th place on the national stage, several spots ahead of Stanislaus State. Dupuis ended up placing 162nd as the team’s sixth runner despite a number of meets in which she served as a middle-lineup piece.
Overall, it was a respectable national meet showing, especially considering the amount of youth on the squad. And with much of this lineup returning, the potential for this team in 2023 appears to be exceedingly high over the coming months.
It may come as a surprise that we are expecting improvement from the Wildcats when we tell you they enter this season without their low-stick star, Marissa D’Atri. She gained tons of momentum throughout the course of her senior campaign and established herself as a true high-end All-American.
However, the Wildcats were relatively successful through the first-half of the regular season before D’Atri even emerged as a strong lead scorer. Plus, we’re banking on internal improvement largely making up for her scoring loss, something that seems more realistic for Chico State (given their youth) compared to other teams.
The only other major departure is Katie Hawley who was a key scorer at times, but only raced for about half of the 2022 cross country season.
No, this team does not appear to have a proven All-American-caliber star in 2023, but there’s a lot of exciting talent waiting in the wings -- which brings us to our first two returners.
Our conversation should probably begin with the Molina sisters who seemingly opted to redshirt their track seasons. Admittedly, those absences leave us a bit unsure of their current fitness level. Even so, we are still highly excited about their upside for this fall assuming they are as healthy as they were last fall.
Remember, we saw a pair of top-40 finishes from them at the Santa Clara Bronco Invite, a 10th place finish from Iresh Molina at the CCAA XC Championships and a 92nd place finish from Della Molina on the national stage. All of that was done as true rookies.
What can these two sisters do in the fall of 2023 with a highly valuable year of experience under their belts? History says that these two underclassmen are set to make a major jump.
Hannah Tiffany should join the Molina sisters as one of the team's better scorers after running some very impressive times during the outdoor track season. She came away with PRs of 16:33 (5k) and 34:58 (10k), competing in both of those events at the outdoor national meet.
With her expected jump in fitness, Tiffany should provide Chico State with a surprisingly strong top-three. And already, you can see how this team is positioned for a better 2023 fall campaign than what they produced last year.
On top of their strong sophomores, the Wildcats have several valuable upperclassmen returning as well. That list included Gracie Dupuis, Hannah Ryan and Jaclyn Denahm, the latter of whom was a varsity contributor at times in 2022.
All three of those women have high-level experience and an opportunity to step up and play a major role in offering key depth later this fall. It's highly possible that Dupuis is closer to a middle-lineup scorer than a backend contributor.
The final varsity runner could be Jacqueline Cascione who won the Pre-Nationals "Open" race and placed in the top-20 on the conference stage. The Wildcats also bring in five freshmen this fall and considering how well some of their newcomers fared a year ago, a couple of these rookies could certainly make an impact this fall.
Chico State enters this season with a level of depth and retention that will draw envy from a number of their peers. They have multiple candidates to be lead scorers and each of their returners can be reasonably expected to improve in 2023, although it’s unlikely that they all of them will.
Their biggest challenge, however, will be developing a reliable backend group to their lineup, although the Wildcats have no shortage of potential answers.
It’s entirely possible that the Molina twins, Tiffany and Dupuis will be reliable throughout the entirety of the 2023 season, but it would still be a major boon if Ryan and a few others can consistently limit any scoring gaps.
It would also help if someone develops into something closer to a true low-stick (rather than just a lead scorer) to replicate some of D'Atri's value from last year. For top-heavy teams, having a top talent like that would be very helpful.
If everything falls into place for the Wildcats, then they could very well be the team that remains steady throughout the regular season, wins a few meets and finishes inside of the top-10 at the national meet in November.
Either way, we feel solid about Chico State's baseline talent (as well as their history) as one of the better teams in Division Two this fall.