ST. HELENA >> Andre Williams might lose a race someday, but that day wasn’t on Wednesday as the Kelseyville High School freshman collected his ninth first-place finish this season during a Coastal Mountain Conference meet in St. Helena.
While Williams continued his run of first-place finishes with a time of 16 minutes, 28 seconds on the 2.8-mile Bothe State Park course, he had some competition from teammate Roberto Lozano, who finished just 12 seconds behind him in second place.
“Andre has been beating people by 40 or 50 seconds,” Kelseyville coach Ernest Woodson said. “He (Lozano) really closed that gap today. It was his last race in the sense of conference head-to-head match and we dedicated our race to Lozano (the Knights’ lone senior).
“He’s been getting better and better and better,” Woodson said. “He’s not only a good runner, but he’s a wonderful guy and smart.”
Both the Kelseyville and Clear Lake boys registered wins on Wednesday – Kelseyville beat St. Helena 22-33 while Clear Lake defeated Cloverdale 18-37 — and will take 6-1 dual records into the CMC Championship Meet a week from today at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa.
While Williams and Lozano were setting the pace for Kelseyville, the top five Knights all finished in the top 10. Kevin Sanchez was fifth in 17:29, Jack Farris was ninth in 18:12, and Justin Perez came in 10th in 18:17.
“Kelseyville is really a strong team,” Clear Lake coach Peter Stanley said. “It’s just not Andre and Lozano.”
Stanley’s Cardinals limped into Wednesday’s meet with just five healthy runners and one of those — Alex Beare — was battling an illness.
“We were kind of beat up,” Stanley said.
Brandon Dickey led the Cardinals with a fourth-place time of 17:22. He led the race at the three-quarter-mile mark, fell off a bit after that but still managed to keep the leaders in sight. Teammate Hunter Daily was sixth overall in 17:38.
In girls’ action, Blanca Martinez of non-scoring Pacific Union Collegiate came in first with a time of 19:40, just eight seconds ahead of Clear Lake’s Meghan Beare (18:48).
“Meghan really ran well,” Stanley said.
Laurel Weller led Kelseyville with a sixth-place time of 21:46 and Clear Lake’s Rainey Vanoven was 10th in 22:47.
“She finished ahead of all but one of the Kelseyville runners, which made her happy,” Stanley said of Vanoven.
Kelseyville’s Bailey Couey and Yareli Lozano finished 11th and 12, respectively, separated by just one second — 22:54 and 22:55.
In team scoring, Kelseyville improved to 5-2 in dual meet action with a 25-30 win over St. Helena. Cloverdale defeated Clear Lake 25-31.
Clear Lake’s Dillon Bennett won the junior varsity boys’ race in 19:08. Also for the Cardinals, Nate Falkenberg ran third in 21:12 while brother Cord was fifth in 21:24. Kelseyville’s Jason Gentle finished sixth in 21:57 and Clear Lake’s Jacob Lopez was seventh in 22:43.
In other action Wednesday:
Boys’ soccer
Making Waves 2, M’town 1
At Richmond, Making Waves Academy rallied from an early 1-0 deficit to beat Middletown in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division II playoffs.
Victor Lopez scored and Jonathan Wilson had the assist to give the Mustangs (10-5-3) a 1-0 lead midway through the first half. Making Waves (16-1-3), the No. 6 seed in the 12-team playoff field, tied the game in the final seconds of the half.
The Marlins pushed ahead 2-1 midway through the second half.
“We had a couple of runs at them, but we couldn’t score again,” Middletown coach Luis Chairez said. “They’re a great team.”
Solid play in the net from Middletown keeper Trevor Smith kept the Marlins from increasing their lead.
“He had some nice saves,” Chairez said. “He did an awesome job.”
Middletown finished second in the North Central League I behind Kelseyville and had its best regular season ever prior to qualifying for the Division II field as the No. 11 seed.
“I’m proud of all their hard work and how well they played,” Chairez said of his veteran squad. “I’m very happy with them.”
While the Mustangs lose eight seniors to graduation, Chairez said the team has several young and hungry players ready to step in next season.
Volleyball
M’town 3, Willits 0
At Middletown, Middletown varsity coach Jennifer Breiner honored her six seniors — Tana Bouscal, Meghan Carlisle, Jess DeSilva, Emily Lescher, Jordan Ketchum and Chelsea Tom — before the Mustangs’ fine home match of the regular season and then let those six play the entire first set in a 25-20, 25-7, 25-10 North Central League I over the Willits Wolverines.
It was the second match in as many days for the Mustangs (7-6), who play another tonight in Cloverdale against the Eagles (7-6), the league finale for both teams. The winner secures fourth place in the final standings.
Carlisle had a team-best seven kills against the Wolverines to go along with three aces. Bouscal added six kills and one block, and DeSilva had three kills and two aces (on her first two serves of the night).
Willits rallied to win the junior varsity match 20-25, 25-20, 15-6.
