The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: hsu cross country

  • AS President Sports Decorated Track Record

    AS President Sports Decorated Track Record

    Lizbeth Cano-Sanchez steps up to the Associated Students presidency

    Lizbeth Cano-Sanchez is the first sophomore to serve as president of Associated Students at Humboldt State University since at least 1975.

    Cano-Sanchez took over as president of AS following the previous president’s resignation in December 2019. Formerly the administrative vice president, Cano-Sanchez decided to run for HSU student government after serving as president of the Hill dorms and a member of the Resident Hall Association board in her freshman year.

    “Sometimes in my life, and I thank God for it, things align and things happen, but I push for them, and I work for them,” Cano-Sanchez said.

    AS Legislative Vice President Jeremiah Finley began working with Cano-Sanchez as a fellow dorm president on the RHA.

    “During any transition period in any organization, things can get a little hectic and challenging as the new person comes to fill the role left behind,” Finley said. “That being said, after she became AS president, working with her has been the most valuable experience that I have had in my young professional life.”

    “I don’t think I was intimidated. I was very excited. But I could feel a little bit of sadness within me, because I knew I had to make a choice between sacrificing more leisure time or self care time or I was going to be sacrificing running.”

    LIzbeth Cano-Sanchez

    Originally from Mexico, Cano-Sanchez was raised in Monterey Park, California. She currently has temporary residency in the U.S. and is making her way toward citizenship.

    Cano-Sanchez initially came to Humboldt to be a part of the track and field team and the cross-country program. She’s taken part in both varsity sports since her freshman year at Schurr High School. She was the MVP for cross-country her freshman and senior years, and MVP of track and field her sophomore and junior years. She became captain of the cross-country team her sophomore year, and the track and field team her junior year. She also currently holds the 5K record at Schurr High.

    Cano-Sanchez decided to step away from sports this spring to make much-needed room for her new role as AS president.

    “I don’t think I was intimidated,” Cano-Sanchez said. “I was very excited. But I could feel a little bit of sadness within me, because I knew I had to make a choice between sacrificing more leisure time or self care time or I was going to be sacrificing running.”

    Cano-Sanchez said her relationship with running also changed.

    “I wasn’t setting goals for myself in that area anymore, and it was because I was trying to grow in other areas,” Cano-Sanchez said. “Now that I’m away from it I can see all of my errors, but I still have some growing to do before I go back.”

    As a business major, Cano-Sanchez chose to run for the administrative vice president’s position during the 2019 spring elections because of its practical application to her major. She ran with a platform advocating for a stronger student union, having visited other universities with more efficient systems.

    “We have a very lenient and flexible system at the moment,” Cano-Sanchez said. “It calls for innovation and creativity, and that’s a huge thing that I value. So, I’m not talking about making things more strict, not at all. I’m talking about having a more efficient system, within ourselves, in order to successfully serve our students.”

    As the AS administrative vice president, Cano-Sanchez made efforts to centralize HSU’s funded programs. She also resurrected the AS Funded Programs Committee that’s been chaired by the AVP position in the past.

    “Being AS president is very time consuming and Lizbeth has done a phenomenal job at doing what she can, but also delegating tasks and roles to other AS board members.”

    Jenessa Lund, Executive Director of AS

    “At first, only a few showed up,” Cano-Sanchez said. “Then the second meeting, more showed up and I felt very happy to see them getting involved and wanting to have their voice be represented. That was a hard one to let go of [the AS Funded Programs Committee] because I liked seeing how the money worked and how our students were being served through their student fees.”

    As the fill-in president of AS, Cano-Sanchez has taken on the position as if she ran for it. She has weekly advising meetings with the AS professional staff, monthly meetings with HSU President Tom Jackson, and has created strong communication between the AS board.

    Executive Director of AS Jenessa Lund has worked closely with Cano-Sanchez for the academic year.

    “She has consistently demonstrated that she is willing and capable to prioritize her AS roles,” Lund said. “Being AS president is very time consuming and Lizbeth has done a phenomenal job at doing what she can, but also delegating tasks and roles to other AS board members.”

    Cano-Sanchez admitted the position takes time.

    “But it’s worth it,” Cano-Sanchez said. “Students need to know and my board needs to know in order to communicate it down.”

    Cano-Sanchez’s main focuses with AS are improving the internal structure and raising awareness of AS resources that can help to meet student needs. Cano-Sanchez has also decided to run for AS president for the 2020-2021 academic year.

    Juggling classes with a presidency is enough to stress out anyone, but Cano-Sanchez feels she was made for it.

    “I think that I’m very much a natural born leader, ” Cano-Sanchez said. “I know that I am. I know that I can tell when things need to be fixed, and I have been fixing them.”

  • Tull Impresses at National Championships

    Tull Impresses at National Championships

    HSU cross country runner Daniel Tull places 56th out of 267 competitors at the Division II National Championships in Sacramento

    Humboldt State’s Daniel Tull’s long hair, iconic mustache and yellow headband made him easily identifiable in the field of over 250 runners who descended on the Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento, CA for the 2019 NCAA Division II Cross Country Championships.

    Tull was the only Lumberjack to feature in the 10K race, having been granted an at-large berth the week before due to his individual results over the season. He ran a strong finish to his season, placing 56th out of 267 competitors.

    In the early stages of the race, Tull ran in the midfield at a quick pace, rolling through the first mile in 4:45. For the next two miles, he worked his way up the field, picking up positions regularly as he made his way into the top 100 runners by the halfway point.

    • Humboldt State’s Daniel Tull starts the national Division II cross country meet towards the back of the pack while wearing his signature yellow headband. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Daniel Tull talks with Head Coach Jamey Harris at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • HSU senior Daniel Tull runs with his competitors during the opening stages of the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship at Arcade Creek Cross Country Course in Sacramento on Nov. 23. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    Teammates and family members who made the trip to Sacramento to cheer him on dashed around the course encouraging him throughout the race. As the pack eased into a rhythm, Tull averaged 4:56 per mile to cross the 5K mark at 15:21.

    “The first mile was pretty fast,” Tull said. “I was just placed too far back. I went too relaxed in the beginning, and then in the middle I kind of settled down.”

    After his difficult start, Tull began to make more moves, storming his way through the field with a little more than two kilometers left to go. From there, Tull said that he felt comfortable to push as he noticed the guys around him slowing down. In that last stretch, he passed 40 runners to surge into his finishing position of 56th, only 16 places outside of All-American honors.

    “With a mile and a quarter to go, I was like ‘Oh, it’s only 2K, I’ll send it,’” Tull said. “‘I’ll just start passing people one at a time.’ Everybody else was slowing down or staying at the same pace, so I started picking it up.”

    Head Coach Jamey Harris was pleased with how Tull ran through his hard start and made progress through the latter stages of the race.

    “Obviously the race went out fast,” Harris said. “He went through a rough patch in the middle. But he really turned it on and passed about 50 guys in the last couple of miles, so I thought it was a really solid performance. I think on his best day he was capable of getting that All-American certificate, but I was really pleased with the way he raced and the way he kind of fought through the bad patch and finished strong.”

    • Humboldt State senior Daniel Tull works his way through a turn at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship in Sacramento on Nov. 23. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Daniel Tull reflects for a moment after placing 56th in his final collegiate cross country race at the NCAA Division II Cross Country Championship. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    In addition to his teammates, Tull’s father, Mel, came to the race to cheer his son on. Mel Tull said that the first time he realized how serious his son was about running came during his second year of high school.

    “I never really knew how into it he was,” Mel Tull said. “Then I went to a cross country meet and he came over the mountain and he was running third. And I realized well, he apparently knows what he’s doing.”

    After the race, Daniel Tull reflected on how special it was to end his collegiate cross country career at the national meet.

    “I’m glad I finally made it here,” Daniel Tull said. “It was a goal of mine for a long time. The race was pretty massive. It feels cool to be part of something like this. Most races are fun and I like them and it’s good energy, but this is different energy for sure.”

  • Jacks Host CCAA Cross Country Conference Meet

    Jacks Host CCAA Cross Country Conference Meet

    Athletes from across California traveled to Arcata to compete in the Division II cross country conference championships

    On Saturday morning hundreds of runners prepared to toe the line for a California Collegiate Athletic Association cross country conference meet. Despite the impending power outage, the best of California’s Division II runners descended on the Baywood Golf & Country Club as Humboldt State hosted their first conference championship.

    The women’s race was six-kilometers long, contested by 12 teams and the men’s race was eight kilometers long as ten teams aimed for the top spot.

    • Humboldt State’s Rosa Granados leads a small pack of runners during the CCAA conference meet at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State junior Maddie McGarry works her way up the biggest hill on the course at the Baywood Golf & Country Club for the CCAA conference race on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State’s Cessair McKinney leads the way for the Jacks in the early stages of the women’s race while competing for position with runners from around the CCAA. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • HSU’s Cessair McKinney runs past spectators on a downhill portion of the course at Baywood Golf & Country Club for the CCAA conference race on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • The Humboldt State women’s cross country team begins their CCAA conference race at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State freshman Lucy Atkinson embraces teammate Liz Cano after they both completed the CCAA conference race at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State freshman Lucy Atkinson embraces teammate Liz Cano after they both completed the CCAA conference race at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    The women’s race set off at 9 a.m. Humboldt State’s Cessair McKinney took an early lead for the Jacks but slowly slipped behind teammate Rosa Granados who ended as Humboldt’s top finishing runner in 16th, with a time of 22:49. McKinney finished the race in 30th with a time of 23:16.

    The women’s race was six-kilometers long, contested by 12 teams and the men’s race was eight kilometers long as ten teams aimed for the top spot.

    Another standout in the women’s race was the Jacks’ Yuliana Garibay who was able to work her way up the highly competitive field to cross the line in 40th, just behind teammates Rosie Melville and Saedy Williamson.

    HSU Coach Jamey Harris was impressed with Granados’ run Saturday, mentioning that as one of the highlights of the meet for him.

    “Rosa was a little bit of a pleasant surprise,” Harris said. “I thought top 15 was possible for her but I thought that was going to take a really, really good day and she had a really good day. Almost got top 15.”

    Chico State claimed top honors in the women’s race by placing eight of their runners in the top 15 to finish with 23 points compared to second-place Cal State East Bay who finished with 81 points. The HSU women’s team placed seventh overall with 152 points beating Cal State Los Angeles and Cal State Bernardino.

    A thirty-minute gap between events allowed the men to warm-up before starting their race. While the athletes were ready to get things underway, complications with the starting gun resulted in several false starts.

    Humboldt State’s Evan LeDesma races alongside Cal State East Bay’s Bryan Llopis as they head down one of the slight downhills on the course during the men’s CCAA conference race at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    When things finally got moving, the race was packed up for much of the first two kilometers. Humboldt’s Daniel Tull has been the team’s leader since the start of the season and continued to stick with the front pack through the early and middle stages of the competition, even taking the lead for a brief time. As the race continued, Chico once again held control in the championship race.

    Tull led the Jacks in tenth followed by the Jacks’ Elliot Portillo in 43rd, and the rest of his teammates took sixth as a team. Tull was the only Jack to finish in the top 15 Saturday, but that did not stop him from pointing out that he could have finished stronger had he not led early on in the race.

    “I was feeling really strong and I was with the front group for the first 6K or 7K,” Tull said. “I kind of moved up from fourth or fifth to first. The guys that I passed made a really strong move that I couldn’t really cover, so I kind of faded. Once I lost my momentum I kind of paid for that. I’m still happy with it, that’s my best race yet. But I know I could have done better.”

    Portillo felt that the team’s performance was where things were expected to be, but he thinks there could be better performances up ahead for himself and his teammates.

    • Members of the Jacks’ Event Team which largely consisted of Humboldt State track athletes sway as they chant ‘Humboldt’ before the start of the Oct. 26 men’s CCAA conference race. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State’s Daniel Tull laces up his spikes before the start of his last CCAA conference meet at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • HSU’s Elliott Portillo comes down the chute to the finish line at the end of the CCAA men’s conference race at Baywood Golf & County Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • HSU’s Daniel Tull battles with the leading pack of runners during the Oct. 26 men’s CCAA conference race. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State’s Joe Shanahan runs with the tight pack at the start of the men’s CCAA conference race on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Runners complete their warm up before the start of the men’s CCAA conference race at Baywood Golf & Country Club on Oct. 26. | Photo by Thomas Lal
    • Humboldt State’s Michael Gengo outkicks CSUMB’s Jullian Dorantes-Lara by two tenths of a second at the end of the men’s Oct. 26 CCAA conference race. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    “I got out pretty quick, kind of found myself slipping into a back pack,” Portillo said. “As the race strung out, some moves were made. And then definitely within the last 400 yards, my body kind of shut down on me and it was just a struggle to finish. I think as a team we had a few guys that had bad days, that didn’t quite do what they wanted. We still finished about where we were expected to so that’s a healthy sign.”

  • HSU Athletics Press Conference Breakdown 9/17

    HSU Athletics Press Conference Breakdown 9/17

    Volleyball bounced back, women’s soccer took a loss and cross country preps for an upcoming meet in Oregon

    As Humboldt State sports fans wait for Jacks games to return to College Creek Field and Lumberjack Arena, the volleyball and soccer teams competed along the West Coast and beyond. Volleyball suffered an initial setback at the West Region Showcase in San Francisco, but bounced back with two wins. Women’s soccer managed a loss and a draw in Portland and men’s soccer traveled to Billings, Montana and won both of their games. Cross Country did not compete last week, but they are training for their upcoming meet in Monmouth, OR.

    The weekly HSU Athletics press conference at Lumberjack Arena featured comments from the coaches and chosen players from each sport.

    Volleyball

    The Jacks traveled home from San Francisco with a 2-2 record. Thursday brought a doubleheader loss to both San Francisco State and Cal State Dominguez Hills, both by a score of 3 sets to 1. Friday and Saturday proved to be much better, as the Jacks swept Fresno Pacific and Dominican 3 sets to 0.

    Outside Hitter Lenox Loving scored 60 kills in the four matches, earning her HSU student-athlete of the week honors. She talked about how the team chemistry and energy have improved over last season, with the benefit of the team returning ten players from last year’s squad.

    “Even when we lost everyone was working hard,” Loving said. “I think it’s just that the team chemistry is so much better this year, and everyone has the same attitude of working hard and getting the job done.”

    Cross Country

    The Jacks weren’t in competition this week; however, they were still hard at work as they prepare for their upcoming competition at the Sundowner Invitational in Monmouth this weekend. Head Coach Jamey Harris talked about the team’s preparation and what to expect with the course in Monmouth.

    “We’ve been training hard out in the marsh and in the forest trying to make ourselves better,” Harris said.

    He also talked about the course that the Jacks are going to race this Friday, saying it is milder than the home course in Arcata and he expects times to be faster.

    “It’s almost all grass, so it’s similar to our home meet,” Harris said. “It’s not nearly as hilly, but most of it is not entirely flat.”

    Men’s Soccer

    The long days of air travel paid off for the Jacks in Montana, as they swept their road trip and won both games convincingly. On Friday they beat MSU-Billings 2-0, and things only progressed as they put the University of Mary away with ease in a 5-1 win on Sunday. The Jacks made history in the second game as Isaiah Dairo scored just 10 seconds into the match, which broke a team record for the fastest goal in a game. Dairo took us through the process of the goal that started at the opening whistle and how he noticed the defenders playing farther away from their own goal.

    “From the start, we had seen that they were playing a high line,” Dairo said. “My teammate Dalton Rice plays a fantastic ball, and it took maybe two touches at most.”

    Women’s Soccer

    The Jacks are still searching for their first win. Their trip Portland included a 3-1 loss to Concordia and a 0-0 tie in double overtime to Saint Martin’s. Head Coach Paul Karver talked about the need to finish their chances, as the team only had two goals on 63 shot attempts over the two games. He also discussed the pressure on the team as they search for their first win.

    “It’s a big old gorilla on the back and the girls feel the weight,” Karver said. “It’s just that in that final moment we’re not making the right decision.”