LAKE COUNTY — Upper Lake and Clear Lake hosted cross country meets while Middletown”s runners hit the road on a sometimes sunny, sometimes stormy Wednesday afternoon around the Redwood Empire.
Upper Lake hosted Point Arena, St. Helena, Fort Bragg and Mendocino on its 2.86-mile course, which was pounded by rain and wind during the combined junior varsity boys”/varsity girls” race.
At Highland Springs, host Clear Lake ran a modified course because of the weather, using the paved road that runs in and out of the park for most of the 2.7-mile race there.
And in Calistoga, the nasty weather forced meet organizers to run a combined 2.7-mile race for JV boys as well as varsity boys and girls.
Upper Lake
The Upper Lake Cougars beat an incomplete Point Arena squad in the varsity boys”, varsity girls” and JV boys” divisions.
Jacob Richards of Fort Bragg won a down-to-the-wire varsity boys” race in 16 minutes, 44.05 seconds, barely holding off Upper Lake”s Gage DeHerr (16:44.65).
Also for Upper Lake, Chris Cisneros, Jared Wade, Alex Rogers and Cory Rodriguez finished fifth through eighth, respectively.
In the varsity girls” race, Alexandra Sciocchetti of Fort Bragg won in 18:17. Markie Stifter of Upper Lake was fifth in 21:27 and teammate Bianca Cruz was sixth in 21:36.
The JV boys” race went to Upper Lake”s Giovanni Bautista in 18:06. Teammate Brandon Lovrin was second in 18:14.
Clear Lake
Joe Carrillo of Cloverdale won the varsity boys” race at Highland Springs in 14:26 while Lower Lake”s Audel Torres (15:51) and Cloverdale”s Axay Patel (15:55) waged a strong battle for second place.
Clear Lake”s Jacob Blue led Clear Lake with a sixth-place time of 16:53 and teammate Brice Beare was eighth in 17:09.
Clear Lake beat a complete Kelseyville team 15-46 while Lower Lake fell 19-42 to Cloverdale.
Only one second separated the top two runners in the varsity girls” race, which was won by St. Vincent”s Emerald Jones in 20:58. Kelsie Lawson of Clear Lake was right behind her at 20:59.
Kelseyville”s Lisa Kurth came in fifth in 21:43.
In the JV boys” race, Ryan Hodges of Clear Lake finished third overall in 18:12.
Middletown
While his runners weren”t too thrilled about the prospect of running in inclement weather, Middletown coach Eric Olson said the Mustangs ? varsity boys, varsity girls and JV boys — all turned in strong showings against Willits.
Middletown”s varsity boys beat Willits 26-31, the varsity girls won 15-50, and the JV boys finished 1-5 in their race.
Chris Orr of Willits won the varsity boys” race (time not available) but Middletown freshman Ian Bright came in second at 17:17, about 30 seconds behind Orr. Another Middletown runner, Gerardo Vargas, was third in 18:08.
The Mustangs also placed sixth through ninth — Sam Lomakin (18:30), Adrian Macedo (19:16), Brandon Earl (19:17) and David King (19:24).
In the varsity girls” race, Middletown”s Amber Ramponi finished second behind a Rincon Valley Christian runner (name and time not available) with a time of 20:32.
Middletown runners also placed fifth through 11th — Tori Roderick (22:48), Amanda Martin (23:45), Katy Huggins (24:17), Amber Hart (24:36), Marie Crim (25:15), Rose Lynch (25:28) and Kristina Herrmann (25:29).
In the JV boys” race, Jake Tangerman led the way for Middletown with a winning time of 18:54.
“Even with the rain and cold weather, it was worthwhile,” Middle-town coach Eric Olson said of his team”s performance. “Everyone was smiling.”
