HIGHLAND SPRINGS >> Catch her if you can. Yareli Lozano is off to a great start this season as the No. 1 runner on Kelseyville High School’s girls cross country team.
Lozano won her second race in as many weeks on Wednesday during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference meet on the 3.1-mile Highland Springs course just south of Lakeport. Although Lozano’s Knights ended up on the wrong end of a 22-33 team score to powerhouse Fort Bragg, the Kelseyville senior cruised to a 53-second victory, winning in 22 minutes, 25 seconds. Finishing a distant second was Aubrey Freeman of Fort Bragg at 23:18.
“She was all alone all the way,” Clear Lake coach and meet director Peter Stanley said of Lozano’s big win, that coming on the heels of her victory a week ago at the Lake County Meet where she broke the Kelseyville course record.
Ten of the top 11 runners in the girls race were wearing either Kelseyville or Fort Bragg jerseys. St. Helena’s Jade Schlaiter, fifth in 25:55, was the exception.
Also for Kelseyville, Brianne Henry came in sixth in 26:11, Laurel Weller was ninth in 26:48, Bailey Huggins was 10th in 27:24, and Bailey Couey finished 11th in 28:02.
St. Helena defeated Clear Lake 22-34 in the other head-to-head matchup.
Varsity boys
Nicholac Przybylinski and Jordan Reilly of St. Helena battled Kelseyville’s Luis Mosqueda for the win in the varsity boys division.
Przybylinski came out on top in 20:25 followed by Reilly at 20:28 and Mosqueda, the winner at last week’s Lake County Meet, in 20:34. Beau Marek of Kelseyville came in fourth in 21:11 and Jerry Schweiger of St. Helena rounded out the top five in 21:17.
Ethan Wynacht was Clear Lake’s top runner and sixth overall at 21:28.
“Ethan is coming into his own this year,” Stanley said. “He’s a real runner and he’s doing great.”
Also cracking the top 10 was Kelseyville’s Jeff Amendola, eighth in 21:49.
The best team battle of the day was between Fort Bragg and Kelseyville. The Timberwolves edged the Knights 29-30. St. Helena beat Clear Lake 17-45.
JV boys
Jacob Lopez of Clear Lake and Cade Morse of Fort Bragg locked up in a good race in the junior varsity boys division, Lopez winning in 24:09 while Morse came in second at 24:12.
“It was an amazing race for him,” Stanley said of Lopez, who competed as a varsity runner a week ago at the Lake County Meet.
“I still haven’t figured out who all of my varsity runners are going to be, but he might have made that decision easier with the way he ran today,” Stanley said of Lopez.
Jaron Mertle of Clear Lake finished third in 24:49.
Clear Lake and Fort Bragg had the only complete teams in the field.
Conditions
Runners had the advantage of unseasonably cool weather for a mid-September meet. In fact, rain fell on the course earlier in the day, washing away some of the flour course arrows that point the way for the runners at key points. As an added precaution, Stanley marked the course with “four to five” orange cones only to learn following the race that someone had removed them.
“It was cold and blustery by the time we were finishing up,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake will score against Willits next Wednesday in Willits. Kelseyville travels to St. Helena next week to go up against Cloverdale.
Lots of purple
Fort Bragg brought more than 40 runners in uniform at Highland Springs, up from 39 a year ago.
“I thought they had a lot last season when they came here,” Stanley said of the Timberwolves. “Their coach told me they have 50 runners (this season). She didn’t bring them all.
“There was a lot of purple out there,” said Stanley, referring to Fort Bragg’s team colors.
