MIDDLETOWN — Middletown”s Miriam Lane won the varsity girls” race and Upper Lake”s Charlie Coburn edged out Middletown”s Jarrod Rudy in the varsity boys” race on Wednesday during the annual Lake County Meet on the 3.0-mile Middletown course.
Lane and Coburn led their respective teams to victory in the varsity division. Upper Lake picked up another team title in the junior varsity boys” division with a dominating performance led by race winner Alex Rogers.
Team scoring had Upper Lake”s varsity boys beating Clear Lake 20-35 with the Middletown and Lower Lake squads incomplete (fewer than five runners). In the girls” division it was Middletown 25, Clear Lake 43, Upper Lake 60 and Lower Lake incomplete. Upper Lake”s JVs beat Clear Lake 19-42.
Kelseyville High School did not participate.
“It was a good meet for our boys,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said of both his varsity and JV squads. “I”m really excited about the varsity kids, but the JV boys are going to be real good looking down the road. To see how excited they were to do as well as they did, it”s a good sign for our program.”
Varsity boys
Coburn and Rudy battled for most of the 3 miles on a flat Middletown course.
“Coburn began to pull away about 2 ? miles into the race,” Middletown coach and meet director Eric Olson said. “It was a real exciting race.”
Coburn won in 18 minutes, 18 seconds, nine seconds ahead of Rudy (18:27).
The only other runner finishing in less than 20 minutes was Alejandro Maldonado of Middletown, third in 19:45. Upper Lake”s Michael Dolan came in fourth in 20:03 and teammate Ben Mullin was fifth in 20:17.
Rounding out the top 10 spots were Chris Nance of Middletown, sixth in 20:21; Jeffrey Mulligan of Clear Lake, seventh in 20:41; Ian Smith of Lower Lake, eighth in 21:02; Kyle Donald of Clear Lake, ninth in 21:18; and Andrew O”Meara of Upper Lake, 10th in 21:23.
“It was the first meet of the season that was 3 miles and I didn”t know how my people would do,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “I was happy. All the new kids did well.”
Varsity girls
Lane, a sophomore, beat everyone to the finish line in the varsity girls” race. Times were not available because of a problem with the timing equipment.
Lane was one five Middletown girls finishing in the top 10. She was joined by teammates Amber Hart (fourth), Amanda Martin (fifth), Amber Ramponi (sixth) and Thea Olson (10th).
Marina Sharp, a senior first-year runner for the Cougars, was a surprise second-place finisher, while sophomore Jessica Henson of Clear Lake came in third.
Other top-10 finishers were Elizabeth Perkins of Lower Lake (seventh), Chloe Rojas of Clear Lake (eighth) and Alice Borje of Upper Lake (ninth).
Rojas, a first-year runner like Upper Lake”s Sharp, was one of the more pleasant surprises of the meet for Clear Lake, according to Stanley.
JV boys
It was a tidal wave of Upper Lake red in the JV boys” race as Cougar runners finished first, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th. Rogers led the way, Clear Lake”s Brian Bradley came in second, then it was Upper Lake”s Christopher Cisneros, Cory Rodriguez, Jared Wade and Jordan Austin.
Middletown runners David King and Sam Lomakin placed seventh and eighth, respectively, Clear Lake”s Nick Carley was ninth, and Upper Lake”s Daniel Van Meter came in 10th.
“Brian Bradley had never run before,” Stanley said. “He proved he”s a varsity runner.”
Seventy-two runners participated in the meet.
“The weather was nice and there was lots of parent participation,” Olson said. “It was a great meet.”
