MIDDLETOWN — Even without a runner in the top four, the Upper Lake High School varsity boys” cross country team defeated Willits 25-33 in a Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet on Wednesday at the 3.0-mile Middletown course.
“It”s really hard not to get first or second and win the meet,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said of his talented Cougars squad.
Charlie Coburn”s fifth-place time of 17 minutes, 34 seconds led a pack of Cougars to the finish line. Teammate Michael Dolan was sixth in 18:11, Lower Lake”s Tyler Murray was seventh in 18:45, Upper Lake”s Andrew O”Meara was eighth in 18:45.4, Middletown”s Jarrod Rudy was ninth in 18:58, and Upper Lake”s Christian Cisneros rounded out the top 10 at 19:01.
“The last time Coburn ran here he was at 18:08, so he shaved 34 seconds off his time,” Middletown coach Eric Olson said. “That”s nothing to sneeze at.”
Upper Lake”s fifth finisher (team scores take into account the top five times on each team) was Ben Mullin, 15th in 19:56.
And for good measure, the Cougars also had the 16th- and 17th-place runners, Fwee Chao (20:06) and Cameron Beighle (20:21).
Evan LaBruzzo of Rincon Valley Christian won in 17:08 and Willits runners Val Rogers (17:22) and Chris Orr (17:27) were next across the finish line.
While Lower Lake fell 22-34 to Middletown in team scoring, Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said he was pleased with Murray”s seventh-place finish.
“I”m really pleased with him. He ran seventh in a strong field,” Carpenter said.
Girls
Miriam Lane of Middletown pulled away from Marina Sharp of Upper Lake over the final 1 ? miles to easily win the girls” race in 21:27. Sharp came in second at 22:44 and Peace Southland of Willits was third in 23:20.
“Marina stayed close to Miriam the first half of the race,” Woods said. “Marina”s running very, very well.”
Olson said Lane”s strategy is to stay up with the fastest junior varsity boys, who run with the varsity girls, but that she couldn”t keep up with Upper Lake”s fastest JV runners this time around.
“Upper Lake”s runners dominated,” Olson said.
Other top-10 Lake County finishers were Middletown”s Amber Hart, sixth in 24:38; Upper Lake”s Alice Borje, eighth in 25:16; and Middletown”s Amber Ramponi, ninth in 25:49.
Middletown”s Aman-da Martin was 11th in 26:12 and Elizabeth Per-kins had Lower Lake”s best time, finishing 12th in 26:23.
“I”m really impressed with Amanda,” Olson said.
JV boys
Upper Lake runners finished 1-3 and 5-10 in the JV boys” race for an easy 17-38 victory over Willits.
Jared Wade won in 20 flat, Alex Rogers was second in 20:16 and Chris Cisneros came in third in 20:48. The only non-Upper Lake runner to crack the top 10 was Willits” Bradley Thomas, fourth in 21:27.
“He”s done some great things with those runners,” Olson said of Upper Lake coach Woods. “Those guys are built like runners.”
