MIDDLETOWN — It was a good day for the Middletown varsity boys and a long one for the Middletown girls on Wednesday during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet at the 3-mile Middletown course.
Also present were Kelseyville, Cloverdale and Calistoga.
While nearly every boy on the Middletown squad was setting a personal-best time on Wednesday — led by fifth-place finisher Chris Whiting who knocked an entire minute off his previous best at Middletown — the Middletown girls ran into a strong Cloverdale squad and didn”t fare very well.
Fortunately for the girls, they weren”t scoring against Cloverdale this time although the two teams will do exactly that next week on the Eagles” home course in Asti.
“I knew they were tough, but that”s one pretty impressive group,” Middletown coach Mitch Tucker said of the 12-strong Cloverdale girls” squad. “Even if a couple of our runners had run personal bests today, I don”t think it would have been enough.”
Middletown and Cloverdale are battling it out for the CMC title.
Boys
John Dedmon of Middletown won the varsity boys” race in 17 minutes, 48 seconds, a personal best at the Middletown course, and brother Jeremy Dedmon was third in 18:31. Teammate Whiting crossed the finish line in 20:03.
“That was just a great effort,” Tucker said of Whiting.
Other top-10 Lake County finishers were Middletown”s Chris Nance, sixth in 20:13; Middletown”s Jarrod Rudy, seventh in 20:15; and Kelseyville”s Beau Woodson, 10th in 20:30.
Girls
Jennifer Miller of Cloverdale easily prevailed in the varsity girls” race, cracking 21 minutes and finishing in 20:52. Teammate Crystal Orozco was a distant second in 21:58.
Middletown”s Kelsey Welton (22:03) won a photo finish with Cloverdale”s Jamie Lampert (22:04) for fourth place, and Kelseyville”s Arielle Lehmer (22:56) rounded out the top five.
Clear Lake-Lower Lake
At Calistoga, the Clear Lake, Lower Lake, Santa Rosa Christian and Sonoma Academy squads joined host St. Helena on its newly-configured 3-mile course.
In varsity boys” action, Brian Cole of St. Helena christened the new course with a winning and course-record time of 16:38. Zack Nave of Santa Rosa Christian came in second in 17:44 and Danny Crockenberg of Sonoma Academy was third in 18:13.
Cracking the top 10 from Lake County were Clear Lake”s Tyler Hayes, seventh in 19:28, and Lower Lake”s Cameron Dudding, 10th in 20:40.
“Tyler ran well,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said of the Cardinals” No. 1 runner. “And Leif Tissel finished in 21:26 (15th place). I was real pleased with that.”
Lower Lake”s Shy Savok was well on his way to a top-10 finish but had to retire from the race early on with sore ribs as he apparently re-aggravated an injury he sustained just prior to the start of school in August.
“He was running real strong,” Lower Lake coach Laura Hutchinson said. “He had lots of energy before it (the race). It was around the first mile when his ribs started hurting.”
Clear Lake edged Lower Lake 27-31 in team scoring.
In the girls” race, Chiri McClean of Santa Rosa Christian led the way in 22:00, Grace Haffner of Sonoma Academy came in second in 23:02 and Whitney Turley, also of Sonoma Academy, was third in 23:24.
Tayler Whipple of Clear Lake was the first Lake County runner to finish as she took 11th in 26:17. Kate Lyons of Lower Lake was 16th in 26:47.
Lower Lake beat Clear Lake 24-33.
JV boys
Sean Milligan of Lower Lake was seventh overall in the junior varsity boys” race, finishing in 34:06.
“He”s doing terrific,” Hutchinson said. “He improves every time.”
