HIGHLAND SPRINGS — Cloverdale”s varsity boys and Sonoma Academy”s varsity girls pulled down team victories on Wednesday during a four-team cross country meet at Highland Springs Reservoir, the home course of the Clear Lake Cardinals.
Fort Bragg also took part in the competition along with a single runner from Calistoga.
“The conditions were good for running,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “It was a bit breezy, but it wasn”t bad.”
Still, not everyone had a good time, according to Stanley.
In the junior varsity boys” race, Cloverdale”s five-man team would have finished 1-5 had not race leader Jesse Lee taken a wrong turn on the course. Lee”s miscue gave Clear Lake the victory since the Eagles had only four official finishers and not the required five.
“I feel bad for him, but I marked the course everywhere,” Stanley said. “In fact, I marked it in so many places I thought Highland Springs was going to be mad.”
Runners have the opportunity to walk the course before each race to become familiar with it, according to Stanley.
Varsity girls
Sonoma Academy held off Cloverdale 29-35 to win the team title. Clear Lake was well back in third place with 81 points.
Whitney Turley of Sonoma Academy, Shelby Luginbill of Cloverdale and Bonnie Campbell of Sonoma Academy staged a pretty good battle that Turley won in 26:34 on the 3-mile course. Luginbill (26:38) and Campbell (26:41) were close behind.
Tayler Whipple of Clear Lake finished 10th overall in 29:22.
Varsity boys
Cloverdale beat Sonoma Academy 40-53 in boys” team scoring. Fort Bragg came in third with 57 points.
Daniel Hansen of Sonoma Academy topped the field in 20:32 and Calistoga”s Kevin Reynolds was second in 20:43.
Clear Lake”s top finisher was Tyler Hayes, who was sixth in 21:57. Rawley Butler ran 12th in 23:16 despite pulling a calf muscle during the race.
Other top Cardinal runners were Leif Tisell (24:14) and Zane Butler (24:17).
Junior varsity
Marcus Sanchez won the JV boys” race in 24:35. Finishing fifth, sixth and seventh were Clear Lake runners Joshua Blair (26:29), Erik Hagberg (26:30) and Brandon Holt (26:31).
