PALO ALTO — Upper Lake High School”s cross country contingent swelled the ranks of prep and collegiate runners taking part in the prestigious Stanford Invitational on Saturday in Palo Alto.
Many of the nation”s top high school runners were present. Competitors were split into several divisions, the top two being the seeded boys and seeded girls. Walt Schafer of Cherry Creek, Colorado, won the seeded boys” race in 15 minutes, 25 seconds and Molly Grabill of Rancho Bernardo won the seeded girls” race in 17:35 on the 5-kilometer course.
Upper Lake”s top finishers were Michael Dolan among the boys at 19:31 and Jennifer Delk among the girls at 29:31.
Also cracking 20 minutes was Upper Lake”s Ben Mullin at 19:34. Next across the finish line for Upper Lake were Charlie Coburn at 20:21, Fwee Chao at 20:25 and Brandon Lovrin at 23:13.
The top small-school times among Redwood Empire runners went to Chris Orr of Willits at 18:35 and Grace Hafner of Sonoma Academy at 20:38.
Upper Lake travels to Sonoma Academy (Santa Rosa) on Wednesday for a Coastal Mountain Conference meet that also includes Willits and Santa Rosa Christian. The Cougars stay on the road next Saturday to complete in the Clam Beach Invitational at McKinleyville.
