PETALUMA — Rose Lynch celebrated her 16th birthday with a sweet effort on Wednesday, finishing second during a Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet on the 2.9-mile Helen Putnam Park course in Petaluma.
Lower Lake, St. Helena and St. Vincent also participated in the competition. Middletown went head to head with Lower Lake in team scoring and it proved to be a good day for the Mustangs, who won 15-46 in the girls” division and 23-32 in the varsity boys” division.
Girls
Katie Carlsen of St Vincent won the girls” race in 22 minutes, 59 seconds and Lynch was the only runner closer to her at 23:19. Valeria Cisneros of St. Helena came in third in 23:37.
Four other Middletown runners cracked the top 10. They were Tawnee Bundschuh, fifth in 24:27; Amber Hart, sixth in 24:27; Amber Ramponi, seventh in 24:29; and Amanda Martin, ninth in 25:26.
Lower Lake”s Elizabeth Perkins rounded out the top 10 at 25:46.
“Rose had a real good Lake County Meet and she really shined again today,” Middletown coach Eric Olson said. “They (teammates) sang her happy birthday before the race.”
Boys
Mikey Depala of St. Vincent won the varsity boys” race in 17:57, easily beating runner-up Grant Jeffocoat of St. Helena to the finish line.
Middletown”s top finishers were Sam Lomakin, ninth overall at 19:55, and Adrian Macias, 10th at 20:28.
Lower Lake”s Jeremy Lombari came in 12th at 20:44 to lead the Trojans and Middletown freshman Madax McDowell was 13th in 20:56.
Frosh-soph boys
Joe Olson of Middletown won the frosh-soph boys” race in 23:31, Lower Lake”s Loren Laws came in second at 24:12 and Middletown”s Tanner Kelly was third in 26:59.
“It was a great day out there for the team,” Olson said of Middletown”s boys and girls.
In other cross country action Wednesday:
Clear Lake vs. Cloverdale
At Sonoma Academy, Clear Lake, Cloverdale, Santa Rosa Christian and Sonoma Academy took part in a race on the Santa Rosa school”s 2.6-mile course. Clear Lake scored against Cloverdale with mixed results. The girls beat Cloverdale 25-31 to improve to 3-0 in CMC action, while the Clear Lake boys fell 17-44.
The meet standout was Cloverdale”s Joe Carrillo, who won the frosh-soph boys” race in 14:20, a course record. A transfer student, Carrillo is required to run in the frosh-soph division even though his time beat the varsity boys” winner by 57 seconds. Carrillo also set a course record a week ago in Upper Lake.
“That kid is fun to watch,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said of Carrillo.
Girls
For the first time this season someone other than Chloe Rojas was Clear Lake”s fastest girl and that runner was Kelsie Lawson, who finished fourth overall in 19:28. Rojas was fifth in 19:50.
“It certainly was a very good race for Kelsie,” Stanley said. “Kelsie and Chloe are our two hardest workers.”
Andreina Guedez finished ninth for Clear Lake in 20:27, Tamara Rojas was 16th in 22:19, and Crystal Wilcox was 19th in 24:29.
“We needed our fifth runner (Wilcox) to beat Cloverdale”s fifth runner and that”s what she did,” Stanley said.
Katy Lee of Sonoma Academy won the girls” race in 17:06.
Boys
Freshman Brice Beare posted Clear Lake”s fastest time in the varsity boys” race, finishing 17th overall in 17:38. Teammates Matt Gatton (18:02) and Andy Garzoli (18:24) finished 21st and 24th, respectively. Erik Hagberg was 25th in 18:29.
Frosh-soph boys
Carrillo won by almost five minutes in the frosh-soph boys” race.
Clear Lake had four runners finish in the top 10. Leading the way was Travis Thorn, fourth in 18:48, and Connor Disney, fifth in 19:05. Cody Scully was seventh in 19:25 and Brandon Disney was ninth in 19:31.
“Travis was our runner of the day,” Stanley said. “And Connor was our other big runner. That”s his best effort so far.”
