HIGHLAND SPRINGS — Cassidy Parker continued his strong season for the Middletown High School varsity boys” cross country team and Clear Lake”s Meghan Beare got even with Cloverdale”s Angela Romero on Wednesday during a four-team cross country meet at Highland Springs just south of Lakeport.
Lower Lake also participated in the meet on a perfect fall day in Lake County.
Parker ran comfortably in front of the varsity boys” pack on the 3.1-mile home course of the Clear Lake Cardinals, one that features a narrow path that doesn”t allow passing over part of the course. There is also one substantial hill nicknamed “Big Bertha” on the front half that usually thins out the field in a hurry. An additional obstacle on Wednesday was a giant limb, also located on the front half, that recently fell over the path used by the runners. It was so big that it couldn”t be moved by hand and runners had the option of going around it or jumping over it, which many opted to do.
“It”s a long course and a difficult, slow course,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said.
Parker met all the challenges to win in 20 minutes, 21 seconds, a cushy 25 seconds ahead of Owen Lawler, who ran a strong race for the Cardinals in 20:46.
“I thought he was going out too fast, turns out he wasn”t,” Stanley said.
Everardo Chavez of Lower Lake also cracked 21 minutes, finishing third in 20:59. Diego Munoz (21:03) of Middletown and Connor Disney (21:17) of Clear Lake rounded out the top five.
Four of the next five finishers also were Lake County runners, led by Madax McDowell of Middletown in sixth (21:40), Eddie Llewellyn of Lower Lake in seventh (21:41), Jake Tangerman of Middletown in ninth (22:21) and Kenyon Heenan of Lower Lake (22:22) in 10th. Emmett Lawson of Cloverdale was eighth in 21:55.
“Connor ran his usual steady, strong race for us,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake”s Alex Beare (22:38) and Jake Egger (22:42) finished 12th and 13th, respectively.
“Alex is moving up and becoming our third runner. He has improved every week,” Stanley said. “Jake is just a strong runner.”
Middletown beat Clear Lake 34-49 in team scoring.
Girls
After finishing second to Cloverdale”s Romero a week ago at Willits and third behind Romero and teammate Katie Edwards two weeks ago at Cloverdale, Clear Lake”s Meghan Beare found her stride and then some on Wednesday, winning in 23:41, well ahead of Romero (24:20) and Edwards (25:07), who finished second and third, respectively.
“Sweet revenge for Meghan,” Stanley said.
Beare had a big lead at the midway point and continued to put distance between herself and Romero, who beat Beare by 15 seconds at Willits and 54 seconds at Cloverdale.
“She was feeling good today,” Stanley said. “She ran like it.”
Middletown”s Tori Roderick nailed down fifth place in 27:08 while teammate Tiyanna Meese was seventh in 27:50. Clear Lake”s Kimberley English rounded out the top 10 in 28:55, seven seconds ahead of 11th-place finisher Sequoia Dreyer of Lower Lake.
“Kimberley English has improved each week to become our steady No. 2,” Stanley said. “She”s a hard worker and is doing well.”
Cloverdale, with six runners in the top 10, easily won in team points with 23 to Middletown”s 53 and Clear Lake”s 65.
JV boys
Led by Riley Adams in 22:39, Middletown runners dominated the JV boys” race, finishing first through fourth and seventh for a team score of 17. Clear Lake had the only other complete team (at least five runners) and finished with 50 points.
Adams beat out teammate Eddie Amante, who was seven seconds back in second place at 22:46. Teammates Jacob Olson (23:11) and Peter Sullivan (23:18) were next across the finish line. Clear Lake”s Aaron Hodges finally broke up the Middletown string with a fifth-place finish of 23:19, five seconds faster than teammate Solano Dominguez (23:24) in sixth place. Jonny Nance of Middletown was seventh in 23:24.5.
“Hodges has missed the last two weeks, so I was surprised he did so well,” Stanley said.
Dominguez, a freshman who has been with the team only a matter of weeks, also looked good, according to Stanley.
Clear Lake has a bye next week and returns to action Oct. 23 at St. Helena. Middletown and Lower Lake also take next week off before returning to action Oct. 23 at Kelseyville.
Editor”s note: Be sure to check the Lake County Record-Bee”s Facebook page for photos and videos from Wednesday”s action.
