SANTA ROSA — The buzz saw that is the Sonoma Academy High School cross country program hosted another small-school power, the Upper Lake Cougars, in a Coastal Mountain Conference meet Wednesday on the Coyotes” 2.8-mile home course.
Willits and Cloverdale also participated in the meet.
Sonoma Academy beat Upper Lake in all three divisions, winning 15-27 in varsity boys” scoring, 24-31 in varsity girls” scoring, and 25-36 in junior varsity boys” scoring.
While the day belonged to the Coyotes, it was Cloverdale”s Joe Carrillo who turned in the best individual effort as he broke the course record in the varsity boys” race with a winning time of 14 minutes, 2 seconds.
“If there would have been someone there to push him, he probably would have been below 14 minutes,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said.
Varsity boys
While Carrillo pretty much had the course to himself in the varsity boys” division, Sonoma Academy”s top five scorers finished second (Jax Raeff, 14:50), third (Jacob Gaynor, 15:01), fourth (Aaron Rotman, 15:19), fifth (Austin Orr, 15:20) and seventh (Patrick Loftus, 15:43). Only Chris Orr of Willits broke up the string, placing sixth in 15:34.
Gage DeHeer was Upper Lake”s top runner with a ninth-place finish of 16:10. The next four Cougar placers were Cory Rodriguez, 11th in 16:23; Chris Cisneros, 13th in 16:30; Jared Wade, 14th in 16:31; and Nick Davison, 15th in 16:48.
“We couldn”t stay with them,” Woods said of the Sonoma Academy runners. “We were in contention for the first loop (on the three-loop course), but out of contention by the second loop.
“They (Coyotes) ran really well. They had a race plan to go out really hard and we went out hard after them and burned ourselves out a little bit,” Woods added.
Even had the Cougars paced themselves a little better at the start of the race, Woods said it probably wouldn”t have made a difference in the final outcome.
“My guys ran very, very hard,” he said. “We really couldn”t have done much better.”
Varsity girls
Katy Lee (18:37) and Kiana Herold (18:49) finished one-two for Sonoma Academy in the varsity girls” race. Lee and Herold ran together most of the race before Lee pulled away with about a half-mile to go.
Yari Sanchez of Cloverdale finished third in front of Upper Lake freshman Bianca Cruz (20:30).
Also finishing in the top 10 for Upper Lake were Tonya Bennett, sixth in 21:04, Markie Stifter, eighth in 21:32, and Brittany Benner, 10th in 21:52.
“Bianca ran a great race,” Woods said. “I keep forgetting she”s a freshman.”
Finishing just outside of the top 10 was Upper Lake”s Courtney Aceves, 11th in 21:52.
“I”m really pleased with how the girls ran, especially Bianca,” Woods said. “If we can ever put a race together when everyone runs their best at the same time, we”d really pack ”em in (individual placement times). They”re all improving a lot.”
JV boys
Anthony Rink of Cloverdale won the JV boys” race in 16:45. Brandon Lovrin of Upper Lake was second in 17:15 and teammate Giovanni Bautista came in fourth in 17:27.
The Cougars leave early today to participate in the Mt. Sac Invitational all day Friday in Walnut.
