By Staff reports
UPPER LAKE ? Seventeen Upper Lake cross country runners set a new school record on their relay to the coast on Friday. Leaving from Low Gap Park in Ukiah, they ran the 44 miles, relay style, ending at the mouth of Big River, the Pacific and highway one in 7 hours and 4 minutes, knocking 2 minutes off of last years time. On Saturday the weary but still wanting to run team ran the 6 miles of water fall trail in Russian Gulch State Park, and on Sunday a quick 2 miles in Mackerricher State Park to give the team a three day total of 52 miles.
Coach Woods would like to commend all the participants. The course, which has an elevation change of 11,000 feet and a climb of 5500 feet, i s not an easy one. Veterans, Mike Dolan and Charlie Coburn ran the long climbs getting the team over the mountain early in the day while the temperature was still low. Ben Mullin was on the course early and often running almost 20 miles, and was often running a leg with younger runners talking to them and giving encouragement. Cameron Beighle had an excellent outing, showing toughness, improved endurance and speed over last year. Several lady Cougars ran this year, veteran Mary Tucker show marked improvement over last year, ran several legs, and was a constant volunteer to get out and run. Megan Morgan and Emily Bushta put in several miles and were much tougher this year than last as was senior Sydney Drodowski. New to the sport, junior, Tyler Warren showed some natural speed and toughness as did several of the freshmen boys, Gage DeHeer, Cory Rodriquez, Alex Rogers and Geovanni Bautista had a excellent day and were running the last leg of the run that led to the record time. First time relay participants Daniel Van Meter, Jordan Austin, Ian Weber, and Alex Dukes ran their share of miles and showed a lot of promise for the upcoming season.
“Mullin, Beighle, Dolan and Coburn showed a lot of leadership on the run and trip. It was good to see the team come together so fast”, Woods said. “Keeping everyone fed for 3 days was the most difficult part of the trip. There were lots of calories burned.”
An event like this doesn”t happen without good help. The team would like to thank, Kelly and Ashley Burns, Bobby Cox, Alice Woods, Josh Woods, a group of very supportive parents and the school board, administration and transportation departments at Upper Lake High School for their continued support.
