ASTI — Paola Garcia’s story had a happy ending on Wednesday afternoon. Forty-five minutes after she collapsed near the end of the girls race on the 3.0-mile Asti course near Cloverdale, the Clear Lake High School cross country runner, other than a scratched elbow, was just fine.
Forty-five minutes earlier that wasn’t the case. In a scary scene, Garcia, one of the top runners for the Cardinals, was headed toward a strong finish when she began weaving on the homestretch.
Clear Lake head coach Peter Stanley, who is a medical doctor practicing in Lakeport, watched his runner pass out a few moments later.
“It’s a long straight, a long gradual climb,” Stanley said of the final stretch of the Asti course. “There were three runners (in sight) and one started weaving, she was making S turns. I thought it was someone playing a trick.”
When Garcia collapsed in a heap, Stanley quickly realized it was one of his runners.
“She was breathing but not conscious, not really responsive,” Stanley said. “She had a pulse all the way, would respond and then not respond.”
Stanley raised Garcia’s legs to increase blood flow to the brain and race officials phoned for help.
“EMTs were called but later canceled,” Stanley said.
Another Clear Lake runner, Rainey Vanoven, stopped to help before continuing on and finishing the race.
“It was a good eight to nine minutes before she was conscious and she was not looking great,” Stanley said.
But Garcia’s condition rapidly improved, so much so that the EMTs responding were called off.
“She got up and with help (from a Kelseyville fan) walked the final 100 yards to the finish line,” Stanley said. “She’s real gutsy but she doesn’t remember much.”
Garcia hadn’t eaten much earlier in the day and may have been suffering from a low sugar level, according to Stanley.
“I think she ran herself to total exhaustion,” Stanley said.
Clear Lake and host Cloverdale joined Kelseyville and St. Helena in the four-team Coastal Mountain Conference meet that took place in ideal weather conditions just south of the town of Cloverdale.
Cloverdale edged Clear Lake 27-29 in team scoring in the girls division although the Cardinals lost a handful of points when Garcia went down and teammate Vanoven stopped to help, which cost her several minutes.
“She (Garcia) was running third or fourth at the time,” Stanley said.
Jade Schlatter of St. Helena won the race in 22 minutes, 47 seconds while teammate Fiona Crowley was second in 23:26.
Clear Lake’s top finisher was Catherine Braider, fifth in 26:02. Another Clear Lake runner, Hailey Glass, came in sixth in 30:22. Vanoven was ninth in 32:55.
Varsity boys
There was far less drama in the varsity boys race where Paden Collard of Cloverdale led from start to finish, winning in 16:53. St. Helena’s Jordan Reilly was the only other runner close by. He ended up second in 17:07.
Clear Lake’s Quinn Wynacht nailed down third place at 19:39.
“He’s a talented, lanky runner,” Stanley said. “He did a good job.”
In a tight battle for fourth place, Kelseyville’s Beau Marek (20:01) edged out Cloverdale’s Chistopher Lopez (20:03) and Kelseyville’s Jeff Amendola (20:07).
Also cracking the top 10 was Kelseyville’s Ethan Scuderi-Schulman, ninth in 21:10, and Kelseyville’s Matt Farris, 10th in 21:11.
For Clear Lake, Cole Saiz came in 13th in 22:17 while teammate Tanner Morton was 15th in 23:04.
“Cole is a hard worker and steady,” Stanley said. “Tanner is moving up fast. He’s our solid No. 3 right now.”
In team scoring, Cloverdale beat Clear Lake 20-37 while Kelseyville defeated St. Helena 24-33.
JV boys
There were only three runners in the junior varsity boys division, all of them from Clear Lake. Rob Galeoto finished first in 26:01, Sayer Ford was second in 26:36, and Skylar Moore was third in 29:19.
“Galeoto and Ford ran really good races,” Stanley said.
Schedule
Clear Lake hits the road next Wednesday to take part in a four-team meet in Fort Bragg. Kelseyville travels to St. Helena.
