KELSEYVILLE >> A slimmed down field left Clear Lake and Kelseyville as the only two teams standing during a Coastal Mountain Conference cross country meet on Wednesday at the 3-mile Kelseyville course.
Cloverdale and St. Helena were scheduled to compete but were unable to attend owing to a number of factors created by last week’s fires throughout the North Coast.
Clear Lake and Kelseyville ended up scoring against each other although that wasn’t the original plan, according to Kelseyville coach Jeff Weller, who said his Knights and coach Peter Stanley’s Cardinals were scheduled to go head to head last week at Kelseyville, but that meet was wiped out by the North Coast fires and the smoky and unhealthy air they created throughout the Lake County air basin. The air quality on Wednesday at race time was good.
Yareli Lozano certainly wasn’t complaining. One of four seniors on the Kelseyville girls squad, all of whom were honored with bouquets of flowers before their final home meet, Lozano made it a day to remember by breaking the course record she set last month during the Lake County Meet (21 minutes, 42 seconds). Although there was no one to push her along during the combined girls and junior varsity boys race, Lozano pushed herself, opening up a huge lead that continued to grow throughout the race. She crossed the finish line in 21:19, a full 23 seconds faster than her winning time at the county meet.
The next runner to finish, Kelseyville’s Laurel Weller, was nearly four minutes behind her teammate at 25:11. An orange and black parade followed as Kelseyville runners Bailey Couey (26:58), Brianne Henry (27:57), Nicole Stevens (28:38), Bailey Huggins (29:09), Elisa Jaquez (31:32) and Emma Larsen (35:29) were next across the finish line. Rainey Vanoven of Clear Lake came in ninth in 37:07 and another Clear Lake runner, Fiona Kirkpatrick (38:18), rounded out the top 10.
Kelseyville defeated Clear Lake 15-48 in team scoring.
Varsity boys
Luis Mosqueda of Kelseyville, the Lake County Meet winner, beat teammate Jeff Amendola by nearly a minute in the varsity boys race. Mosqueda was the only runner to crack the 20-minute barrier as he finished in 19:51. Amendola was next in 20:49 and Clear Lake’s Ethan Wynacht came in third in 21:04.
Also finishing in the top five were Beau Marek of Kelseyville in 21:58 and Quinn Wynacht of Clear Lake in 22:40.
Top-10 finishers included Cole Saiz of Clear Lake in 23:03, Ethan Scuderi-Schulman of Clear Lake in 24:18, Leo Rodriguez of Kelseyville in 24:19, Tanner Morton of Clear Lake in 24:59, and Brandt Mason of Clear Lake in 26:51.
High finishes by Mosqueda, Amendola and Marek helped Kelseyville edge out Clear Lake 26-30 in team scoring.
JV boys
Jaron Mertle of Clear Lake won the JV boys race in 26:08, finishing with a healthy lead over teammates Jacob Stahr (27:18) and Jacob Lopez (28:15), the second- and third-place finishers.
Two other Clear Lake runners, Will Green (29:26) and Quintin Scott (31:11), rounded out the top five.
Schedule
Kelseyville hits the road next Wednesday to score against Willits on the Brooktrails course while Clear Lake travels to Anderson Marsh to take on Lower Lake where Middletown and Fort Bragg also will be present.
