SANTA ROSA — Val Rogers of Willits led a lightning-quick field to the finish line Wednesday during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet at Sonoma Academy High School.
Lower Lake and St. Vincent also participated.
Rogers won the varsity boys” race in 15 minutes, 3 seconds on the 2.6-mile course, beating out Aaron Rotman (15:13) of Sonoma Academy by 10 seconds and teammate Chris Orr (15:15) by 12 seconds.
Lower Lake”s Ian Smith finished 11th overall in 17:59, Jeremy Lombari was 16th in 18:32, and Joe Riggs was 17th in 18:34.
“I was really proud of how Joe Riggs ran,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said.
Willits defeated Lower Lake 20-39 in head-to-head scoring.
Varsity girls
Both the Willits and Lower Lake teams were incomplete in the varsity girls” race where five Sonoma Academy girls finished within two seconds of each other. Whitney Turley, Bonnie Campbell and Sara Tatuam finished 1-2-3, all with times of 19:22.
Lower Lake”s Elizabeth Perkins was 12th in 23:29.
Lower Lake is scheduled to host Fort Bragg, Santa Rosa Christian and Cloverdale next Wednesday at Anderson Marsh State Park.
In other cross country action Wednesday:
Clear Lake, Upper Lake at Spring Lake
At Santa Rosa, Santa Rosa Christian runners Justin Watkins (16:15) and Noelle Hosler (20:54) won their respective varsity races on the 3.05-mile Spring Lake course.
Upper Lake, Clear Lake and Rincon Valley also were present.
Mike Dolan logged the fast varsity boys” time for Upper Lake at 17:21, good for fifth place. Andrew O”Meara came in seventh at 18:13 and Christian Cisneros (18:33) finished 10th.
“Dolan ran real well and O”Meara continues to improve,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said. “Fwee Chao (16th in 19:15) also had a good run.”
For Clear Lake, Jeffrey Mulligan placed 20th in 19:38, easily outdistancing teammate Kyle Donald, who was 21st in 20:01.
“Mulligan reasserted himself as our No. 1,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “Kyle and Eric (Hagberg, 22nd in 20:03) had a great race. They were together the last two-thirds of the race.”
Josef Hoeck, 23rd in 20:46, also moved up in the pack as the race progressed.
“He was a strong fourth person for us today,” Stanley said.
Upper Lake beat Clear Lake 15-48 in head-to-head scoring.
Varsity girls
Upper Lake”s Marina Sharp placed third in the varsity girls” race at 21:25, but the Cougars lost 25-36 to Clear Lake in head-to-head scoring.
Upper Lake”s Angel Taylor, a sophomore, was 20th overall in 26:00.
“Angel Taylor ran the best race of her short career,” Woods said. “And Melissa Coburn (19th in 25:51) had a real good race today.”
Jessica Henson had Clear Lake”s best time at 23:34, good for 11th place. Finishing behind her were teammates Kelsie Lawson (12th in 23:57), Chloe Rojas (13th in 24:03) and Tamara Rojas (14th in 24:05).
“What can you say about Jessica? She”s just got talent and a fluid stride,” Stanley said.
Lawson made the biggest move of the Clear Lake runners, according to Stanley.
“Kelsie beat out Chloe for second and she continues to show real good improvement this year,” Stanley said. “Tamara also ran a strong race.”
Frosh-soph
In the frosh-soph division, Upper Lake beat Clear Lake, 15-40, placing seven runners in the top 10. Leading the Cougars were Chris Cisneros (19:33) in second place, Alex Rogers (19:44) in third, and Jared Wade (20:00) in fourth.
“Several of my JVs had real big jumps in their PRs (personal-best times),” Woods said. “Some were by as much as 20-30 seconds. I don”t know why.”
Gleb Lukicov of Santa Rosa Christian won the race in 19:22.
Alex Rein had Clear Lake”s best time, finishing 10th in 21:49. Cody Scully was right behind him in 11th place at 21:54 and Travis Thorn was 13th in 22:15.
“Cody and Travis did a great job,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake travels to Spring Lake again next Wednesday while Upper Lake returns home.
