UPPER LAKE — He”s no ordinary Joe.
Cloverdale High School”s Joe Carrillo not only broke the 2.86-mile Upper Lake High School course record on Wednesday, he shattered it by 61 seconds while leading the Eagles to a head-to-head win over the Middletown Mustangs in a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet that also featured the host Cougars as well as Roseland Prep of Santa Rosa.
Varsity boys
Carrillo clocked in at 14 minutes, 46 seconds to easily win the varsity boys” race. The old record, which also belonged to Carrillo, was 15:47.
“He”s quite the deal,” Upper Lake coach John Woods said of Carrillo. “It doesn”t even look like he”s running hard, his strides are so fluid.”
Carrillo placed more than a minute and a half in front of teammate Axay Patel, who was second 16:22. Patel was followed across the finish line by a sea of red Upper Lake jerseys as Jared Wade (16:25), Nick Davison (16:57), Chris Cisneros (17:06), Alex Rogers (17:07), Gage DeHeer (17:10) and Jordan Austin (17:14) came in third through eighth.
Wade”s third-place time was a personal best by 50 seconds.
Middletown”s top finisher, freshman Ian Bright, was 12th in 17:34.
“Any time you get third through eighth with a spread of about 45 seconds, that”s a good thing,” Woods said. “That”s what I like to see.”
It was the second win of the season for Wade, one of a handful of Cougars with victories this season.
“Any of my top seven are capable of winning on a given day,” Woods said. “I think the biggest surprise today was Jordan Austin. He ran real well and I hope he has another race left in him like that.”
Upper Lake defeated Roseland Prep 15-50 and Cloverdale beat Middletown by the same score.
Varsity girls
Yari Sanchez of Cloverdale won the varsity girls” race in 20:51 while second and third went to freshmen Bianca Cruz of Upper Lake (21:25) and Tori Roderick of Middletown (21:50).
Also finishing in the top 10 were Lake County runners Tonya Bennett of Upper Lake, fourth in 21:56; Amber Ramponi of Middletown, sixth in 22:05; Courtney Aceves of Upper Lake, seventh in 22:09; Angel Taylor of Upper Lake, ninth in 22:43; and Markie Stifter of Upper Lake, 10th in 22:44.
Bennett and Taylor, both seniors, received a rose before running in their final home meet.
“That”s exciting,” Woods said of the second-place finish by Cruz. “She”s just a freshman and I have to keep reminding myself of that.”
Woods also praised Bennett”s effort in her final home race.
Middletown edged Cloverdale 27-33 in team scoring while Upper Lake defeated Roseland Prep 17-42.
JV boys
Anthony Rink of Cloverdale won the junior varsity boys” race in 17:30 while Upper Lake”s Giovanni Bautista (17:44) and Brandon Lovrin (18:11) finished second and third, respectively.
Madax McDowell of Middletown came in eighth in 20:27, Upper Lake”s Jesse Noble was ninth in 21:11, and Middletown”s Tanner Kelly (21:20) and Joe Olson (22:02) finished 10th and 11th, respectively.
Cloverdale beat an incomplete Middletown team and Upper Lake defeated an incomplete Roseland Prep squad.
Upper Lake and Middletown return to action next Wednesday in the CMC Championships at Fort Bragg.
