CALISTOGA — A sea of purple overwhelmed the competition Wednesday during a Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet at Calistoga High School.
Of the 41 runners representing Middletown, Willits, Rincon Valley Christian and Calistoga high schools, 27 of them were wearing Middletown school colors.
“It was kind of nice,” Middletown coach Eric Olson said of fielding full teams against Willits in all three divisions — and beating Willits in all three divisions on the 2.65-mile course.
Varsity boys
Middletown runners Jake Tangermann, Elliot Serena and Madax McDowell finished 1-2-3 in the varsity boys” race. Tangermann won in 17 minutes, 2 seconds, while Serena, only a sophomore, was the runner-up in 17:10. McDowell was third in 17:16.
“Serena went out leading but he was overtaken after about a half mile,” Olson said. “At about 1.25 miles, he was right behind Jake. They took over the race.”
Middletown”s Cassidy Parker was fifth in 17:36.
Varsity girls
Middletown”s Tori Roderick sprinted pass a Willits runner (name not available) to take the lead with 300 yards left in the varsity girls” race, but the Willits runner was able to rally in the final yards and hold off Roderick for the victory. Roderick finished in 20:12, just three seconds behind the winner.
“She really worked hard and came back from a pretty big deficit,” Olson said of Roderick. “She might have started her sprint a little too soon, but she still ran a great race.”
Following Roderick across the finish line were teammates Nikki Erb (23:00), Alana McSween (24:00) and Ashely Thompson (24:31).
JV boys
It was a Middletown sweep in the JV boys” race as the Mustangs finished first through fifth. Riley Adams led the way at 17:08, a healthy 28 seconds ahead of teammate Parker Spadaro (17:36). Middletown”s Diego Munoz (17:50), Christian Nikolov (19:16) and Johnny Nance (19:26) rounded out the top five.
Since the meet was held at a new venue — Calistoga used to race at Bothe State Park – all the winning times stand as course records.
Middletown scores against St. Helena next Wednesday in a CMC meet hosted by Rincon Valley Christian in Santa Rosa.
