FORT BRAGG — Middletown High School’s cross country teams didn’t have all of their top runners on Wednesday afternoon, but the Mustangs have so many quality runners these days that being a bit understrength doesn’t hold them back when it comes to Coastal Mountain Conference competition.
In action at Fort Bragg’s 2.9-mile Bald Hill course, Middletown’s varsity boys and girls squad defeated the host Timberwolves in head-to-head scoring — the boys 20-35 and the girls 21-37 — to remain undefeated in the conference standings. Clear Lake’s boys edged out Lower Lake 27-28 while the Lower Lake girls beat an incomplete Clear Lake team (fewer than five runners). Mendocino also had a handful of runners compete at the meet.
Varsity boys
With Middletown’s Isaac Rascon and Isaiah Diaz not running on Wednesday, Fort Bragg’s Remy Namvar took top honors in the varsity boys division with a winning time of 18 minutes, 19 seconds. Six of the next seven finishers were from Middletown, the exception being Clear Lake’s Quinn Wynancht, who was fourth overall in 19:39. Jordan Rego led the Mustangs with a time of 19:22 to place second and teammate Tyler Cobb wasn’t far behind in third place at 19:30. Javier Perez of Middletown rounded out the top five at 20:03.
Landing in the top 10 were Middletown’s, Parker Boden (20:05), Xander Romero (20:13), Filemon Sanchez (20:26), Mendocino’s Misael Triplett (20:29), and Middletown’s Caleb Cobb (20:41).
Lake County runners also finished 11th and 12th. Daniel Baratton of Lower Lake crossed the line in 20:45 to Hagan Cadwallader’s 20:47 for Middletown.
Lower Lake’s Jacob Noah was 14th overall in 20:54 and Middletown’ Jackson Scheibal was 15th in 21:49.
Girls
Minus Brooklyn Huffman, Erica Kinsel and Alyssa Terry in the girls race, Middletown’s deep girls squad still placed six runners in the top 10 led by freshmen Nicole Pyzer (22:17) and Maya Leonard (23:28). Pyzer and Leonard placed second and third, respectively, behind race winner Dylan Hutchinson (21:26) of Fort Bragg. Giana Tyrrell (25:05) and Ximena Ramirez (25:24) of Middletown rounded out the top five.
Mariela Martin del Campo (27:02) and Lilith Engle (27:13) of Middletown came in seventh and eighth, respectively.
Lower Lake’s top three runners in the field — Carmen Aceves (28:33), Faye Rippe (29:16) and Molly Collins (29:38) — finished 12th, 13th and 14th.
JV boys
Fort Bragg had the only complete team in the junior varsity boys division, beating a Middletown squad that entered no runners in the race.
Ben Madden of Mendocino finished first in 22:13. Jacob Stahr of Clear Lake was fourth overall in 24:24 while teammate Dustin Scott was sixth in 25:11.
Schedule
Middletown’s runners compete Saturday in the Mariner Invite at the Hayward High School course that is home next month to the North Coast Section Championships, the qualifier for the CIF State Championships in Fresno.
The Mustangs return to conference action next Wednesday at home against Kelseyville, Clear Lake and Fort Bragg. Lower Lake also travels to Willits.
