MIDDLETOWN >> The Valley Fire in September of 2015 didn’t spare the Diamond D Ranch that the Middletown High School cross country course rolls through, but more than a year after that devastating firestorm swept through the area the Mustangs were once again back home Wednesday against Lower Lake, Willits and Cloverdale in a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference meet.
There were a couple of noticeable changes on the course other than the many burned trees in plain sight.
“There is water in the creek now and they recently plowed the trails near the track (close to the finish line), so the footing is a little softer than it normally is,” Middletown coach Sarah Carlisle said.
There’s not much water in the creek, just a few inches, but wet shoes and cross country aren’t a merry mix.
“There is enough to get your feet wet,” Carlisle said.
The return to the Diamond D featured a great girls’ race as Middletown’s Grace Southern edged Lower Lake’s Aleia Milano for first place – Southern finishing the 2.8 miles in 20 minutes, 21.6 seconds to 20:21.7 for Milano.
“It was a battle the last 90 yards,” Carlisle said. “Aleia was slightly ahead of her and it was an all-out sprint for the finish. Grace passed her with about five yards left. It was a great race.”
Milano is the three-time defending champion at the Lake County Meet. Southern finished third at this year’s county meet.
Other winners were Cloverdale’s Paden Collard in the varsity boys’ race at 16:03 and Ricardo Haschak of Willits in the junior varsity boys’ race at 20:42.
Girls
Along with Southern, Middletown had four other runners place in the top 10 as the Mustangs beat Cloverdale 21-38 in head-to-head scoring. Savannah Creager was fourth in 21:54, Kamrin Williams was sixth in 22:09, Jessica Zell was eighth in 23:00 and Abi Murphy was 10th in 23:49.
“All of the girls had PRs (personal-best times),” Carlisle said of the girls’ squad. “All but two of our boys did as well.”
Lower Lake also defeated Willits in head-to-head scoring.
Varsity boys
Cloverdale’s Collard finished exactly two minutes ahead of teammate Emmett Lawson (18:03) while winning the varsity boys’ race as the Eagles defeated Middletown 18-38.
Jack Shrive’s fifth-place time of 18:52 led Middletown. Teammates Justin Hingston (20:33) and Aiden Isaia (20:39) finished 11th and 12th, respectively.
Billy Melvin (19:45) and Eric Graves (20:16) placed eighth and ninth, respectively, for Lower Lake as the Trojans held off Willits for a 27-28 win.
JV boys
Three of the top five finishers in the JV boys’ race were Lake County runners. Steven Harvey of Middletown finished second behind Willit’s Haschak in 22:00 and teammate Caden McDowell was third in 22:16. Andrew Smith of Lower Lake came in fifth in 23:08.
