HIGHLAND SPRINGS — A leisurely jaunt it wasn”t.
Cross country runners from Clear Lake, Middletown, Willits, Fort Bragg and Laytonville high schools took on the difficult 3.1-mile Highland Springs course Wednesday with the added handicap of triple-degree heat. In the end, the Miriam Lane-led Middletown girls and the Chris Orr-led Willits Wolverines were all smiles.
Lane won the girls” race in 25 minutes, 46 seconds while leading the Mustangs to a first-place team finish with 38 points. Orr completed the varsity boys” race in 20:54, six seconds behind race winner Mitchell Holcomb of Fort Bragg, but Willits won a tight battle with Middletown and Fort Bragg in the team standings.
“The course has a lot of ups and downs,” Clear Lake coach and meet director Peter Stanley said of the Highland Springs layout. “There”s a lot of trail running, turns and cornering and it prevents you from getting into a rhythm. I heard one runner say it has a lot of ?dipsy-dos,” a lot of steep ups and downs.
“It”s one of the more difficult courses (in the Coastal Mountain Conference),” Stanley added.
“That”s some serious terrain,” Middletown coach Eric Olson added. “But that”s what a cross country course is supposed to be like. It reminds me of an old steeple chase course.”
While the Highland Springs course is pretty much a constant year in and year out, the weather is always a variable and it was plenty hot Wednesday, making the runners work that much harder.
“The runners from Fort Bragg were talking about that,” Stanley said.
Varsity boys
Holcomb certainly didn”t seem to mind the conditions as he blazed to the finish line in the varsity boys” race. In fact, the first 10 finishers were all spread out. Four Middletown runners ended up in that top 10 — Jarrod Rudy (21:42, fourth), Alejandra Maldonado (23:15, sixth), Chris Nance (23:29, seventh); and Tyler Hamilton (24:21, 10th).
Jeffrey Mulligan was Clear Lake”s top runner at 24:28, edging out teammate Kyle Donald (24:29) for 11th place. Also for Clear Lake, Josef Hoeck (24:51) finished one second ahead of teammate John Glazier (24:52) to claim 15th place.
“Mulligan has been our No. 1 runner but now he has someone (Donald) breathing down his neck,” Stanley said.
Olson was pleased with the effort of his Middletown squad, which finished second in overall scoring behind Willits (41 points). The Mustangs ended up with 46 and Fort Bragg had 49.
Varsity girls
Lane took the early lead in the varsity girls” race and parlayed it into a commanding one by the halfway point of the race, at which point her only competition were three members of the Clear Lake frosh-soph team (JV boys and varsity girls run together but score separately).
“Miriam is wonderful,” Stanley said. “The Middletown team is really strong.
Three of Lane”s teammates — Amber Ramponi (31:36), Amanda Martin (32:04) and Amber Hart (32:27) — finished seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively. Thea Olson was 13th in 35:43.
“Our girls dominated,” Olson said. “How can you not be happy with that?”
Chloe Rojas had Clear Lake”s top time at 30:56, good for sixth place. Sister Tamara Rojas ended up 10th in 34:16 and teammate Charnee Vincent was 12th in 35:37.
“Chloe is strong, tough and consistent,” Stanley said. “She has a wonderful stride and looked like a runner.”
Clear Lake”s No. 1 runner coming into the meet, Jessica Henson, was a no-show on Wednesday and Stanley said he didn”t know where she was.
Frosh-soph boys
Brian Bradley, Matt Gatton and Alex Rein finished 1-2-3 for the Cardinals in the frosh-soph boys” race. In fact, Clear Lake had eight runners in the top 10.
“We have a deep team,” Stanley said. “It”s a big, strong team.”
Bradley won the race in 25:46, one second faster than Gatton (25:47), who came out for the team on Monday. Rein was third in 25:56.
“He (Gatton) asked me if he could come out on Monday,” Stanley said. “He was a surprise.
“And Rein picked it up to get that close to the other two,” Stanley said.
Other top-10 Clear Lake finishers were Lucas Thomsen (29:46, fifth), Travis Thorn (31:15, seventh), Brady Swanson (32:11, eighth), Joshua Blair (32:12, ninth) and Cody Scully (32:34, 10th).
