HIGHLAND SPRINGS — Whenever the Middletown Mustangs are racing, it’s usually a steady stream of gold and purple singlets storming across the finish line with little or no interruption from the competition.
The exception is when the St. Helena Saints are in the field as was the case Wednesday afternoon. On those occasions you can expect to see junior Harper McClain in front and senior Jordan Reilly somewhere near the lead. They didn’t disappoint during a four-team Coastal Mountain Conference race hosted by the Clear Lake Cardinals at the 3.2-mile Highland Springs Reservoir course just south of Lakeport. Kelseyville rounded out the field.
While Middletown’s girls and varsity boys had no problem beating St. Helena in head-to-head scoring, McClain dominated a girls race that she won by a 3 1/2-minute margin over Middletown’s Brooklyn Huffman. The varsity boys race was a two-man battle from start to finish between Reilly and Middletown’s Isaac Rascon, the two runners never separated by more than a couple of lengths. In a thrilling finish it was Rascon barely holding off an all-out sprint down the stretch by Reilly. Both recorded an official time of 19 minutes, 4 seconds, with Rascon just a fraction of a second in front.
Girls
McClain, the fastest girl in the CMC ranks and one of the quickest in the state, covered the hilly Highland Springs course in a blistering 20 minutes, 40 seconds, opening up a huge lead early on and lengthening it the rest of the way.
The familiar gold and purple wave followed led by Huffman (24:12) and a host of teammates. Middletown had eight runners in the top 10 — the lone exceptions being McClain and teammate Fiona Crowley, who was ninth overall in 18:25.
Nicole Pyzer and Maya Leonard, two Middletown freshmen, placed third and fourth in 24:39 and 25:19, respectively. Giana Tyrell rounded out the top five in 26:29.
Other top-10 Middletown finishers were Alyssa Terry, sixth in 27:04; Mariela Martin del Campo, seventh in 27:29; Ximena Ramirez, eighth in 27:29; and Lilith Engle, 10th in 28:30.
In head-to-head team scoring, it was Middletown 20, St. Helena 44, and Kelseyville beating an incomplete Clear Lake team (fewer than five runners).
Varsity boys
Rascon led most of the way in the varsity boys race although Reilly briefly took a small lead on the back end of the course.
“He passed me on the back loop, but with about a quarter-mile to go I decided to go for it,” Rascon said. “It’s not how I wanted to run that race and I ran slower here than I did last year. I ran his race and next time I need to run mine. At least I got it done.”
While teammate Isaiah Diaz usually runs second to Rascon, it was Middletown’s Jordan Rego who nailed down that No. 2 slot Wednesday with a third-place time of 20:41, eight seconds ahead of Clear Lake’s Quinn Wynacht (20:49) in fourth place. Diaz ran fifth in 21:04.
“I knew he had the fire in him,” Diaz said of Rego.
Tyler Cobb and Parker Boden, both of Middletown, finished sixth and seventh in 21:27 and 21:31, respectively. St. Helena’s Cleo McClain was eighth in 21:36, and Middletown’s Hagen Cadwallader (21:59) and Kevin Nance (22:00) rounded out the top 10.
Kelseyville’s Matt Harris was 12th in 22:04.
Middletown defeated St. Helena 19-42 while Clear Lake beat Kelseyville 22-35.
JV boys
St. Helena and Clear Lake had the only complete teams in the junior varsity boys division. Andrew Hileman of St. Helena topped the field in 23:43. Two other Saints runners, Liam Milliken (25:17) and William Garrett (26:28), finished second and third. Rounding out the top five spots were Clear Lake’s Liam Orr in 26:46 and Rowan Salinas in 26:54.
Schedule
Middletown travels to Willits next Wednesday while Kelseyville hosts a four-team meet that includes Clear Lake.
