UPPER LAKE >> Upper Lake”s Matt Willard and Rincon Valley Christian”s Madison Provost set course records on Wednesday afternoon while winning the first race held on Upper Lake High School”s reconfigured 3.08-mile cross country course during Coastal Mountain Conference action.
Mendocino and St. Vincent also participated in the meet. Point Arena was a no-show.
Boys
Willard went out hard in the varsity boys” run and opened up a big lead midway through the race. A trio of runners in the chase pack — Mendocino”s Jaspor Panton and Everett Taylor and Upper Lake”s Arthur Wilkie — closed the gap on Willard during the final mile. Willard hit the finish line in 18 minutes, 58 seconds while Panton, Wilkie and Taylor all officially clocked in at 19:06 during a mad dash to the finish. Panton edged out Wilkie for second and Wilkie in turn slipped past Taylor for third place as they crossed the line.
Though happy to win the race, Willard said his goal was to run under 18 minutes during Upper Lake”s one and only home meet of the season.
Also for Upper Lake, Blake Noble came in ninth at 21:15 and Chris Johnson was 10th in 21:25.
Upper Lake and St. Vincent had the only complete teams (five or more runners). Upper Lake won with 37 points and St. Vincent had 51.
Girls
Provost established the lead from the start and continued to attack the course throughout the race. She finished in 22:24, more than three minutes ahead of Upper Lake freshman Lyndsay Wade (25:34), who turned in one of her best times of the season. Montana Stearns-Ayoten of Mendocino was nearly three minutes behind Wade in third place at 28:25.
Rounding out the top five spots were Upper Lake runners Cristal Nieves (28:39) and Mercedes De Los Santos (29:00).
Upper Lake had the only complete team.
JV boys
Coulter Petric of St. Vincent breezed to an easy win in the junior varsity boys” race with a time of 24:01. He was followed across the finish line by teammates Cole Parker (25:25), Ben Propelnicki (25:29), Chris Girolo (26:12) and Rincon Valley Christians” Max Nunley (26:14).
