WILLITS — Nothing like a nearly 3-mile run in 100-degree weather.
Cross country runners from Clear Lake, Middletown, Willits, Fort Bragg and Point Arena battled triple-digit heat during a Coastal Mountain Conference meet on the 2.9-mile Willits course Wednesday afternoon. Clear Lake and Middletown went head-to-head as did Fort Bragg and Willits.
In the match-up between Lake County teams, Clear Lake”s varsity boys and girls both scored solid victories. Matt Gatton led the Clear Lake boys with a time of 19 minutes, 42 seconds, which placed him seventh overall in the boys” race. Teammate Chloe Rojas came in second overall in the girls” race in 22:34.
Race winners were Willits” Valle Rogers (16:23) for the boys and Fort Bragg”s Alex Sciocchetti (21:00) for the girls.
Boys
“We”re happy,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “The varsity boys had only five runners.”
Gatton scored his first head-to-head win this season against teammate Brice Beare, the Cardinals” standout freshman. Beare placed 10th overall in 19:51.
“Brice had beaten Matt every time previously,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake”s top four finishers — Gatton, Beare, Erik Hagberg (14th in 20:39) and Andy Garzoli (15th in 20:39.1) — all ran strong races, according to Stanley.
“The top four were within a minute of each other,” Stanley said. “My boys are finally learning about pace and were right on it today.”
Sam Lomakin led Middletown with a 12th-place time of 20:15.
Girls
While Fort Bragg”s Sciocchetti won the girls” race, runner-up Rojas turned in a strong effort for the Cardinals
“She did better in relation to her (Sciocchetti) than she”s ever done before,” Stanley said. “She was less than two minutes behind her.”
Rojas is one of Clear Lake”s hardest workers and the results are paying off, according to Stanley.
Andreina Guedez of Clear Lake finished third overall in 23:06 and was closer to Rojas — 32 seconds — than she”s ever been before.
“Until today she”s never been within a minute of her,” Stanley said. “She ran a strong race.”
Another Clear Lake runner, Kelsie Lawson, placed sixth overall in 25:07, and teammate Tamara Rojas was seventh in 25:35.
Rose Lynch led Middletown with an eighth-place time of 25:38. Also from Middletown, Amanda Martin came in ninth in 26:06 and Amber Ramponi was 10th in 26:38.
JV boys
Patrick Hillscan of Point Arena won the frosh-soph boys” race in 19:34.2, edging out Will Betts of Willits (19:34.3) by one-tenth of a second.
Cody Scully (23:09) and Travis Thorn (23:18) of Clear Lake placed eighth and ninth, respectively, and Middletown”s Madax McDowell was 10th in 24:00.
“Cody and Travis ran much of the race together,” Stanley said.
Brandon Disney of Clear Lake came in 12th in 24:40.
“He”s been putting his nose to the wheel a little bit,” Stanley said of Disney. “He”s running strong.”
