VACAVILE — Nicole Pyzer, Cat Barriga and Issy Barriga of the Middletown High School cross country team all came away with medals Saturday during the season-opening Lagoon Valley Classic in Vacaville.
Middletown sent seven runners in all — five girls and two boys — to the competition for both small and large school teams.
Girls
Pyzer, a senior, finished 21st out of 74 runners in the 3-mile small school varsity girls race with a time of 22 minutes, 29.8 seconds. Cat Barriga, a sophomore, was the next Mustang to finish, taking 33rd in 24:16.4, and she was followed to the finish line by teammates Issy Barriga, a junior, 36th in 24:27.5, and senior Maya Leonard, 41st in 25:04.4.
Pyzer and the Barriga sisters secure their medals for finishing in the top half of the field.
The fifth member of the Middletown girls team, freshman Holly McComas, was 97th out of 184 runners in the 2-mile frosh-soph girls race with a time of 18:23.3.
“I think we have a fantastic core for a girls team,” Middletown head coach Taylor Tiraterra said. “Three out of our four placed in the top half, and our new girl (McComas) ran her first race in the frosh/soph heat.”
Boys
Dean McComas, a junior, and Aiden Cadwallader, a sophomore, represented Middletown in the 3-mile small school varsity boys race. McComas was 73rd in the 104-runner field with a time of 22:34.3 while Cadwallader was 78th in 22:57.5.
“Our boys team wasn’t at full strength partly thanks to the holiday weekend,” Tiraterra said. “Aiden in particular had a strong start by staying right on Dean’s heels. Our boys team will expand for our meet next week.”
Added Tiraterra on his 2022 team’s debut, “It was a good first invitational.”
Schedule
Middletown competes in the first of its eight scheduled North Central League I meets Wednesday when it travels to Santa Rosa to take on Roseland University Prep. Lower Lake is also scheduled to compete. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90s when racing begins at 3:30 p.m.
“I’m very excited for our season,” Tiraterra said.
