WILLITS — The Middletown High School cross country teams, minus brothers Jeremy and John Dedmon and sisters Kayla and Kelsey Welton, lost to Fort Bragg in Coastal Mountain Conference cross country action on Wednesday in Willits.
Kelseyville also participated in the four-team meet.
The missing Middletown runners, all of whom also play soccer for the Mustangs, were unavailable to run for various reasons, according to Middletowm coach Mitch Tucker.
“We had a skeleton crew and we went up and did what we had to do,” Tucker said.
Middletown”s boys” squad still had a complete team without the Dedmons, however, the girls” team had fewer than the five necessary runners to field a complete team without the Weltons.
In team scoring, it was Fort Bragg 22, Middletown 34 in the boys” division and Fort Bragg 15, Middletown incomplete in the girls” division.
Boys
Kenny Smith of the powerful Willits squad covered the 2.89-mile Willits course in a winning time of 15 minutes, 50 seconds, which tied his personal best. Cody Page and Justin Mehtlan, also of Willits were the next two runners to finish — in 16:48 and 16:50, respectively.
The top finish by a Lake County runner belonged to Middletown”s Chris Nance, who was 11th in 18:36. His teammates, Chris Whiting (19:13) and Jarrod Rudy (19:34) placed 14th and 18th. It was the first time this season that Rudy, a freashman, has scored in the top five for the Middletown boys.
Kelseyville”s Beau Woodson was 19th in 19:40.
Girls
Grace Hafner of Sonoma Academy won the girls” race in 20:36. Her teammate, Whitney Turley, was second in 21:00 and Kayla Myers of Willits finished third in 21:01. Arielle Lehmer of Kelseyville grabbed fourth place at 21:54.
Another Kelseyville runner, Amanda Mueller, rounded out the top 10 at 23:27 and teammate Katie Murphy came in 11th at 24:00.
Middletown”s top runners were Rebecca Rosenthal, 13th in 24:08; Thae Olson, 16th in 25:04; and Rebecca Swanz, 18th in 27:22.
Middletowm hosts Willits, Calistoga, Tomales and St. Helena next Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
