UPPER LAKE — Michael Dolan of Upper Lake won a three-runner battle in the varsity boys” race and Katie Lee of Sonoma Academy ran away from the field in the girls” race Wednesday during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conf-erence cross country meet at Upper Lake High School.
Middletown and St. Helena also took part in the meet.
Dolan finished in 16 minutes flat on the 2.86-mile Upper Lake course, beating out Aaron Rutman of Sonoma Academy by four seconds and teammate Charlie Coburn by five seconds.
“It started out as a real battle between Dolan and Coburn,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said. “They traded places a bunch of times during the race.”
Rutman made a late move to edge out Coburn for second place.
“It was a real exciting race,” Woods said.
Upper Lake beat Middletown in head-to-head scoring 18-48.
The girls” race was all Lee, who won in 17:11, almost two minutes ahead of runner-up and teammate Kiana Herold (18:52). Miriam Lane of Middletown was third in 19:10 and Marina Sharp was fourth in 19:53.
Also cracking the top 10 was Rose Lynch of Middletown in 21:28. Upper Lake”s Melissa Coburn was 11th in 22:02.
“Just watching that girl (Lee) from Sonoma Academy was exciting,” Woods said. “She”s really good.”
Middletown beat Upper Lake 25-32 in team scoring.
In the frosh-soph boys” race, the first eight runners to finish were from Upper Lake, led by Alex Rogers in 17:12 and Jared Ward in 18:03. Rounding out the top five were Cory Rodriguez (18:42), Jordan Austin (18:47) and Gage DeHeer (18:53).
In other cross country action Wednesday:
Clear Lake at Spring Lake
At Santa Rosa, Kelsie Lawson finished first for Clear Lake in the girls” race with her best performance of the season and the Cardinals beat an incomplete Willits team at the 3.05-mile Spring Lake course.
Rincon Valley Christian and St. Vincent also participated in the meet.
Lawson placed sixth overall in the 27-girl field with a time of 23:16, 40 seconds faster than her time a week ago on the same Spring Lake course.
“The story was Kelsie Lawson,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “I”m real excited about how she did. Several people are proof that hard work is starting to pay off.”
Peace Southard of Willits won the girls” race in 22:31. Alexa Crouse of Rincon Valley Christian was second in 22:42 and Kelly Kneis of St. Vincent was third in 22:43.
Jessica Henson of Clear Lake finished seventh in 23:45 and Chloe Rojas was ninth in 24:07. Stephanie Rasmussen was 12th overall in 24:40.
“I”ve always said Stephanie is a solid fifth runner, well now she”s a solid fourth runner,” Stanley said.
In the varsity boys” race, Jonathan Edens of Rincon Valley Christian topped the field in 16:55, teammate Evan LaBruzzo came in second in 17:04, and Chris Orr of Willits was third in 17:40.
Clear Lake”s fastest runner was Jeffrey Mulligan, eighth overall in 19:18.
“Jeffrey really had a nice run,” Stanley said. “He”s just really strong and dominant as our first runner.”
Mulligan was one of four Clear Lake runners to break 20 minutes at Spring Lake. The others were Erik Hagberg, 12th in 19:39; Kyle Donald, 13th in 19:39; and Brian Bradley, 15th in 19:41.
“I”m happy with that,” Stanley said. “As a team we did real well.”
Hagberg edged out Donald for the first time this season, according to Stanley.
Clear Lake also beat Willits 27-28 in head-to-head scoring.
Bradley chopped more than a minute of his previous best time at Spring Lake.
In the frosh-soph boys” race, Cody Scully of Clear Lake topped the field in 22:21. He was followed across the finish line by teammates Brady Swanson (22:57), Alex Rein (23:06) and Travis Thorn (23:16).
“Rein was misdirected on the course or he might have won,” Stanley said.
Both Scully and Swanson ran strong races, according to Stanley. Swanson cut 90 seconds off his time from the previous week at Spring Lake.
Lower Lake at Cloverdale
At Cloverdale, the Lower Lake Trojans were scheduled to host a meet on their own course Wednesday but couldn”t secure Anderson Marsh State Park for the second time this season because of state budget cutbacks. So the Trojans headed over the hill to foggy Cloverdale.
“Cool fog settled in and there were even a few drops,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said. “It makes for nice running weather and the wind was light. But it”s a tough course.”
The five-team meet also included Fort Bragg, the team the Trojans scored against, as well as Laytonville and powerhouse Santa Rosa Christian.
Fort Bragg beat Lower Lake”s boys 17-38 and Lower Lake”s girls 15-40.
Justin Watkins of Santa Rosa Christian completed the 3-mile course in 17 minutes, 4 seconds to win the varsity boys” race. Teammate Brandon Hicks was next in 17:29 and Fort Bragg”s Mitchell Holcomb came in third in 18:05.
Tyler Murray had Lower Lake”s top time at 19:48, good for 12th place, and Ian Smith was 17th in 20:32.
In girls” action, Whitney Edens of Cloverdale won by a comfortable 41-second margin, finishing in 21:14. Alexandra Sciocchetti of Fort Bragg was second in 21:55 and Noelle Hosler of Santa Rosa Christian took third in 22:08.
Elizabeth Perkins of Lower Lake finished 20th in 26:40 and Theodora Toshich was 24th in 30:50.
Next up for Lake County runners in the CMC Championship Meet a week from today at Willits.
