UPPER LAKE — Alex Sciocchetti of Fort Bragg won the varsity girls” race and Ukiah High junior Paul Holden topped the field in the varsity boys” race Saturday during the fourth annual Cougar Classic cross country meet at Upper Lake High School.
Seven teams, including Upper Lake, Clear Lake and Middletown, and 150 runners overall participated in the 2.05-mile run. Host Upper Lake turned in a solid effort as the varsity girls came in first as a team while the boys finished second behind Ukiah.
The meet ran smoothly for the most part although there were a few glitches, according to Upper Lake coach and meet director John Woods.
“One runner got lost on the course and there were a couple of runners whose places and times were incorrect on the scoring sheets,” Wood said. “This was corrected as accurately as I could.”
Varsity girls
Sciocchetti finished the varsity girls” race in 14 minutes, 54 seconds, beating Middletown”s Amber Ram-poni (15:11) by 17 seconds. The Upper Lake trio of Tonya Bennett (15:25), Markie Stifter (15:32) and Brittany Benner (15:41) were next across the finish line.
Other top Lake County finishers were Jessica Orosco (16:51) of Upper Lake, Marie Crim (16:56) of Middletown and Kelsie Lawson (16:58) of Clear Lake.
Upper Lake finished with 26 points to runner-up Fort Bragg”s 51.
Varsity boys
Ukiah”s Holden crossed the finish line in 11:14 in the varsity boys” race, beating out teammates Noah Taxis (11:27) and Beau Brown (11:41). Chris Orr (11:52) of Willits came in fourth and Jacob Richards (11:59) of Fort Bragg was fifth.
Upper Lake”s Gage DeHeer was the first Lake County finisher at 12:11, good for seventh place. He was followed closely by teammates Alex Rogers (12:18) and Chris Cisneros (12:20).
Other top Lake County finishers were Nick Davison (12:29) of Upper Lake, Jordan Austin (12:53) of Upper Lake, Cory Rodriguez (12:58) of Upper Lake, Sam Lomakin (13:07) of Middletown, Brandon Earl (13:33) of Middletown and Connor Disney (13:47) of Clear Lake.
Ukiah won the team title with 23 points. Upper Lake was second with 50.
JV girls
Cardinal Newman runners Laura Vyeniello (14:41), Paige Nonella (15:03) and Marissa Greenband (15:10) were the top three finishers in the JV girls” race. Upper Lake freshman Bianca Cruz was fourth in 15:12.
Other Lake County runners in the top 10 were Middletown”s Victoria Roderick (16:17), Katy Huggins (16:55) and Kristina Herrmann (17:31).
Cardinal Newman won the team title with 17 points and Upper Lake was a distant second with 42.
JV boys
Cesario Ruiz of Ukiah won the JV boys” race in 12:25 after teammate Lane Enzler, who was in the lead for 1? miles, took a wrong turn on the course. He ended up running an extra quarter-mile and still came in sixth.
Middletown”s Ian Bright finished second in 12:23, Upper Lake”s Giovanni Bautista was third in 12:32, Middletown”s Gerado Vargas was fourth in 13:01, and Upper Lake”s Brandon Lovrin (13:07) rounded out the top five.
Lake County”s other top runners were Clear Lake”s Brice Beare (13:31) Middletown”s Jake Tangerman (14:07) and Clear Lake”s Jose Estrada (14:11).
Ukiah edged out Middle-town 46-52 for the team title.
All of Lake County”s cross country teams return to action Wednesday in the annual Lake County Meet at Highland Springs Reservoir just south of Lakeport.
