MIDDLETOWN — You would think a race of 3.1 miles would spread out the field a bit. Not so on Wednesday as Upper Lake”s Charlie Coburn edged out Rincon Valley Christian”s Jonathan Edens by four seconds to win the varsity boys” race during Coastal Mountain Conference cross country action at Middletown.
Coburn, Edens and Upper Lake”s Michael Dolan finished within six seconds of each other, Coburn at 17 minutes, 52 seconds, Edens at 17:56 and Dolan at 17:58. James Lolonis of Upper Lake finished fourth in 18:02, putting the top four runners in a 10-second window.
“Charlie led the whole race from what I could see,” Middletown coach Eric Olson said. “Dolan faded on the second lap a little bit and Edens caught him.”
Upper Lake beat Middletown 20-35 in team scoring and the Cougars” performance certainly made a fan of Olson.
“Upper Lake has a great team,” Olson said. “You”ve got to give their boys credit today.”
Jarrod Rudy had Middletown”s best time at 18:42, good for seventh place, and teammate Chris Nance came in eighth in 18:58. Ben Mullin of Upper Lake was ninth in 19:12.
Girls
Middletown freshman Miriam Lane and Upper Lake”s Ashley Burns staged a pretty good fight for first in the girls” race before Lane came out on top with a time of 21:15.
“They traded places on the back part of the course,” Olson said. “Miriam got her at about the 2 ?-mile mark.”
Burns finished in 21:26, well ahead of third-place finisher Alicia Krueger of Rincon Valley Christian (23:21).
Besides Lane, Middletown placed four other runners in the top 10. Amber Hart was sixth in 24:30, Amber Ramponi was eighth in 26:31, Marie Crim was ninth in 26:52, and Kim Nielsen was 10th in 27:20.
“Another surprise little freshman,” Olson said of Hart. “She”s running great.”
Middletown”s young squad defeated Upper Lake 19-79 in team scoring.
“That”s the thing I”m excited about,” said Olson, who added that his runners haven”t reached their potential yet.
Upper Lake and Middle-town compete in their final regular-season meet next Wednesday at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa.
