And speaking of domination, Middletown sophomore Miriam Lane, one week removed from a tough outing at Upper Lake, ran away from the field in the varsity girls” race, cruising to a winning time of 20 minutes, 24 seconds — 30 seconds ahead of runner-up Alexandra Sciocchetti of Fort Bragg.
“She looked super today,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said of Lane. “The first five or six runners had a great race.”
Upper Lake”s Marina Sharp finished fifth overall in 21:43.
“The girls that beat her have been running cross country, some for three or four years,” Woods said of Sharp, a first-year runner.
Middletown”s Amber Hart placed 11th overall in 23:04, teammate Amanda Martin was 14th in 23:31, and Upper Lake”s Alice Borje was 15th in 23:38. Rose Lynch of Middletown also cracked the top 20, finishing 17th in 24:29.
Cloverdale beat Upper Lake 20-41.
Varsity boys
Although the first four finishers in the varsity boys” race were not Lake County runners, the Upper Lake Cougars swarmed across the finish line in short order to easily beat Cloverdale 23-33 in head-to-head scoring.
Val Rogers of Willits won the race in 16:22, Cloverdale”s Jesse Lee was next at 16:32, Mitchell Holcomb of Fort Bragg was third in 16:39, and Chris Orr of Willits came in fourth in 16:53. Upper Lake”s Mike Dolan rounded out the top five in 17:14.
“It”s always exciting to win as a team,” Woods said. “They ran like they knew the course a little bit and it worked out well. Mikey went out real fast, his first mile was 5:24.”
Jarrod Rudy of Middletown finished sixth in 17:18, then it was Upper Lake”s Charlie Coburn (17:24); Andrew O”Meara (17:26) and Christian Cisneros (17:29).
O”Meara sliced nearly a minute off his time from his previous visit (Sept. 30) to Willits.
JV boys
Upper Lake defeated a strong Cloverdale team 19-36 in the JV boys” division. Chris Cisneros blew away the field in 18:40. In a tight battle for second place, Upper Lake”s Jared Wade (19:00) edged out Darrin Marcucci (19:01) of Cloverdale and Alex Rogers (19:02) of Upper Lake. Cory Rodriguez of Upper Lake rounded out the top five in 19:47.
“Cory really stepped it up today,” Woods said. “He”s been practicing with a lot of intensity.”
In other cross country action Wednesday:
Lower Lake, Clear Lake runners in action
At Santa Rosa, the Lower Lake Trojans and Clear Lake Cardinals made their first trip to Sonoma Academy”s new campus.
“It”s a beautiful campus and the course loops around the campus three times,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said. “From a spectator”s viewpoint it”s great. You can see virtually the entire course.”
“It looks like a college campus,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “It”s on the eastern edge of Santa Rosa.”
Also present was Rincon Valley Christian.
In the varsity boys” race, Brandon Edens of Rincon Valley Christian topped the field in 15:22, leading his team to a 26-29 win over Sonoma Academy. Clear Lake beat Lower Lake 15-46.
“Considering the way we”ve been hit by the flu, I was pleased to just field a boys” team,” Carpenter said of the Trojans, who had the bare-minimum five boys in uniform.
The Lower Lake girls were incomplete and the Trojans” top two runners — Elizabeth Perkins and Fallon Diener — were absent because of sickness.
Clear Lake”s Jeffrey Mulligan and Kyle Donald were the top two Lake County finishers in the varsity boys” race. Mulligan was 11th in 17:19 and Donald was 12th in 17:21.
“It was never close,” Stanley said. “Kyle made up a lot of ground at the end. Jeffrey ran a smart race.”
Lower Lake”s top finisher was Jeremy Lombari, 19th in 18:09.
Carpenter also praised the effort of freshman Jake Peters, who was 22nd in 18:51.
“That”s a dynamite time for a freshman,” Carpenter said.
Varsity girls
Katie Lee of Sonoma Academy won the varsity girls” race in 16:35.
Chloe Rojas had Clear Lake”s best time, finishing ninth overall in 21:17 and beating out teammate Jessica Henson, 10th in 21:38, for the first time this season. Chole”s sister, Tamara, was 11th in 21:46.
“Chloe has worked hard,” Stanley said.
Kelsie Lawson of Clear Lake was 13th in 22:29 and Stephanie Rasmussen was 15th in 23:13.
“Kelsie has cemented her place as our fourth runner,” Stanley said. “And Stephanie is solid as our fifth runner.”
JV boys
Alex Rein was Clear Lake”s top finisher in the JV boys” race at 19:08. Teammate Nick Carley was close behind at 19:21.
