CLOVERDALE — A major winter-like storm on Tuesday gave way to nearly perfect running conditions on Wednesday for the Cloverdale, Lower Lake, Santa Rosa Christian, St. Vincent and Point Arena cross country teams during a Coastal Mountain Conference meet at Cloverdale”s 3-mile course.
“It wasn”t that wet, very runnable,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said. “A couple of the ravines had some water, but nothing major.”
Justin Watkins of Santa Rosa Christian won the varsity boys” race in 17 minutes, 39 seconds, beating teammate Brandon Hicks to the finish line by 16 seconds. Jesse Lee of Cloverdale was third in 18:41.
Lower Lake scored against Cloverdale and lost 16-39. Tyler Murray had Lower Lake”s best time, finishing 14th in 21:46. Ian Smith was 24th in 23:28.
“It”s one of those gut-check type of courses,” Carpenter said. “It”s a fun, big course to run and it lets you know where you”re at.”
Cloverdale defeated an incomplete Lower Lake girls” team (fewer than five runners). Whitney Edens of Cloverdale beat Santa Rosa Christian”s Noelle Hosler to the finish line, winning in 22:58 to Hosler”s 23:07. Beka Jackson of Santa Rosa Christian was third in 23:37.
Lower Lake”s top finisher was Elizabeth Perkins, 19th in 29:45.
The Trojans” hit the road next Wednesday to run against Rincon Valley Christian and Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa.
In other cross country action Wednesday:
Clear Lake at St. Helena
At Bothe State Park, the course was a bit soggy but weather conditions were otherwise ideal for Clear Lake, Rincon Valley Christian and the host St. Helena Saints.
“It was a bit slippery but otherwise a good day for running,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said of the 3-mile Bothe State Park course. “The course has one long, gradual hill with a steep top. It”s a state park so it”s real pretty.”
Jonathan Edens of Rincon Valley Christian won the varsity boys” race in 18:22, beating out teammate Evan Labruzzo (18:32).
Clear Lake”s Jeffrey Mulligan came in sixth (20:53) and teammates Kyle Donald (21:01) and Erik Hagberg (21:22) finished eighth and 10th, respectively.
“Jeffrey is back from an illness and I think he can do better,” Stanley said. “He went out too fast and it caught up with him.
“Kyle had a good race and Erik was a solid third runner,” Stanley added.
Matt Gatton and Brian Bradley ran in their first varsity race and finished in a virtual tie for 12th, with Gatton edging out Bradley 22:08 to 22:08.5.
Overall the Cardinals had four runners finish in less than 22 minutes, an improvement from a year ago.
“Last year we ran mostly in the 22s,” Stanley said. “This year we had four people under 22, so this year”s varsity ran a lot faster.”
In the girls” race, Alexa Crouse of Rincon Valley Christian won in 23:56, eight seconds faster than teammate Alicia Krueger. Lizzie Poisson of St. Helena was third in 24:06.
Jessica Henson of Clear Lake was fifth overall in 24:25. Two other Clear Lake runners ? Chloe Rojas (26:15) and Crystal Wilcox (26:27) ? also cracked the top 10 at eighth and ninth, respectively.
“Jessica ran her usual good race,” Stanley said. “Crystal was our seventh faster runner a week ago, so she really moved up. She”s got a lot of speed.”
Stanley also gave high marks to 13th-place runner Kelsie Lawson, who finished in 27:07.
“Kelsie did a nice job today,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake had the only frosh-soph runners and it was Alex Rein (23:37) nipping teammates Cody Scully (23:37.5) and Nick Carley (23:38) at the finish line.
“The JV runner of the day is Cody,” Stanley said. “He was our 10th fastest runner last week and this week he moved all the way up to second. I knew Alex and Nick would be up there, but not Cody.”
Jess Woodward”s fifth-place time of 25:17 was another pleasant surprise, according to Stanley.
