ST. HELENA >> Joe Swehla pulled away during the final loop of the varsity boys” race, Tori Roderick breezed to an easy win in the girls” race, and James Stalker edged out teammate Christian Nikolov on a great Wednesday afternoon for Middletown High School cross country during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference meet at Bothe State Park in St. Helena.
Middletown scored against host St. Helena while Clear Lake scored against Kelseyville.
“All three teams did a great job,” Middletown coach Sarah Carlisle said of the Mustangs” sweep of St. Helena.
Middletown”s varsity boys and girls won by the same 15-47 scores while the Mustangs” junior varsity boys” squad beat an incomplete St. Helena squad (fewer than five runners).
The 2.88-mile course featured a creek with some water that runners had the option of going through or bouncing from stone to stone to keep their feet dry, according to Carlisle.
“It had a big, long hill and also some up-and-down stretches,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley added.
While no one was lost on the course, which was being used for the first time in its current configuration, a handful of runners did take wrong turns and have to backtrack, according to Stanley.
“That produced some slower times,” he said.
Varsity boys
Swehla and teammate Diego Munoz were neck and neck through the early part of the varsity boys” race before Swehla began to pull away. By race”s end, he had a commanding lead and crossed the finish line in 17 minutes, 13 seconds to 17:49 for runner-up Munoz.
Also for the Mustangs, Justin Hingston came in fourth in 18:14 and teammate Jack Olson was close behind in fifth place at 18:17.
Clear Lake runners Alex Beare and Owen Lawler staged a pretty good race for sixth place, Beare (18:24) winning that battle as Lawler (18:29) came in seventh.
“Owen led him most of the race, but Beare”s strategy is to keep the prey in sight and pounce,” Stanley said.
And that”s exactly what Beare did in the final 300 yards.
Had he started better, Beare might have cracked the top five, according to Stanley.
“He went out to slow and lost sight of the Middletown and Kelseyville runners,” Stanley said.
Kelseyville”s Roberto Lozano ran a strong third in 17:51.
Clear Lake beat an incomplete Kelseyville team.
Girls
Roderick pulled away from the pack and won the girls” race in 22 minutes, well ahead of teammate and runner-up Tiyanna Meese at 23:13.
“She had a great run,” Carlisle said. “She went out strong and finished even stronger. I was excited for her.”
Laurel Weller led Kelseyville with a third-place time of 23:41. Michelle Williams of Middletown was fourth in 24:06 and Clear Lake”s Mariela Soto rounded out the top five in 24:35.
“Mariela ran her usual good race,” Stanley said.
Lake County runners also placed sixth through ninth. They were Natalie Jekel of Middletown (24:42), Yareli Lozano of Kelseyville (25:37), Kamerin Williams of Middletown (25:44) and Abby Murphy of Middletown (26:36).
Clear Lake beat an incomplete Kelseyville team.
JV boys
Stalker closed strong in the JV boys” race to win in 20:28, nine seconds ahead of Nikolov (20:37), who led early in the race.
“He had a strong run,” Carlisle said of Stalker. “He was together with Christian on the first loop. He has some real speed, sprinter”s speed.”
Following Stalker and Nikolov across the finish line were a wave of Clear Lake runners led by Takumi Mitchell (20:43), Nick Dudley (20:52), Hunter Daily (21:11) and Sereno Dominguez (21:16).
“Takumi was our top runner for the second week in a row,” Stanley said. “He”s just a natural born runner.”
Stanley also had high praise for Dudley.
“He”s one of our hardest workers,” he said.
Clear Lake”s other top finishers were Mark Estrada (22:30) in eighth place and Cord Falkenberg (22:33) in ninth.
Jack Shrive finished 10th for the Mustangs in 22:40.
Middletown travels to Willits next Wednesday while Clear Lake and Kelseyville head to Cloverdale.
