LOWER LAKE — Middletown High School’s cross country season is far from over, but the Mustangs paid tribute to two four-year veterans as well as their senior foreign exchange student during the team’s final home meet of the season Wednesday afternoon on the 2.9-mile Six Sigma Ranch and Winery course near Lower Lake.
Unfortunately for Middletown, one of those four-year veterans — senior Nicole Pyzer, the No. 1 girls runner for the Mustangs — was unable to compete for a second straight week because of illness but she was on hand to support her teammates who still beat St. Helena and Kelseyville. When the same three teams met a week ago in St. Helena, the host Saints edged out the Pyzer-less Mustangs.
Pyzer and Maya Leonard opened their Middletown careers back in 2019 under former head coach Don Cobb and they raced all four years under the direction of Cobb, his successor, Anna Schneider, and current head coach Taylor Tiraterra, who took over the program in 2020 with Schneider as his assistant, just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The two runners have been the mainstays of the Middletown girls team for two years running.
Along with Sara Sintubin, a foreign exchange student from Belgium competing in cross country for the first time, Pyzer and Leonard were honored during a post-race ceremony with a variety of gifts, including a bouquet of flowers, as head coach Tiraterra spoke about the athletes, their career achievements and the impact they’ve had on Middletown’s program.
Earlier in the day, Leonard finished second overall in the girls race with a time of 23 minutes, 5 seconds, just nine seconds behind race winner Eva Williams of St. Helena. Cat Barriga of Middletown finished a solid third in 23:25, Lana Henry of St. Helena was next across the finish line in 23:45, and Middletown runners Issy Barriga (23:48) and Holly McComas (26:16) were fifth and sixth, respectively.
Also cracking the top 10 was senior Summer Anderson of Kelseyville, ninth with a personal-best time of 29:03. Ashley Hobbs of Kelseyville was 12th in 30:50 and Sintubin finished 13th in 31:10.
Marlon Martin del Campo of Middletown ran as a junior varsity boy along with the girls and finished in 30:35, a personal best.
While Pyzer and Leonard said goodbye to their home course at Six Sigma on Wednesday, their cross country careers have another month-plus to run. Middletown still has three conference meets, an invitational race in Hayward, the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships and the North Coast Section Championships remaining on its season schedule.
Varsity boys
Middletown beat Kelseyville in boys team scoring but lost to St. Helena, which was led by the class of the field in senior Cleo McClain, who finished in 17:11, almost three minutes ahead of runner-up and teammate Cole Joy (19:56). Close behind Joy in third place was Middletown’s Bryton Caviness, who set a personal-best time of 19:59. It also was the first time this season Caviness has led the Mustang boys to the finish line, according to Tiraterra.
Triton Marlowe of Kelseyville placed fourth overall in 20:01, just four seconds ahead of Middletown’s Baron Chang at 20:05. Marlowe’s time was a personal best, according to Kelseyville head coach Bert Olsen, who said many of his runners posted PRs on Wednesday.
“We’re dealing with a few injuries, but overall they did great,” Olsen said.
Rounding out the top 10 were Ilyas Hendricks of St. Helena (20:17), Dean McComas of Middletown (20:39), Evan Macklin of Kelseyville (20:46), Andrew Hileman of St. Helena (20:54) and Travis Boyles of Kelseyville (20:55).
Finishing in the top 15 were Kelseyville’s Alex Fordham (21:16), Middletown’s Aiden Cadwallader (21:30), Kelseyville’s Jason Key (21:46) and Kenneth Olsen (21:49), and Middletown’s Caden Gotz (23:09).
Besides Marlowe for Kelseyville, Macklin, Boyles and Key all improved their season-best times. Macklin was competing in only his second race of the season but chopped 62 seconds off his time at the same distance a week ago.
Schedule
Middletown and Roseland University Prep return to action next Wednesday at Lower Lake. Kelseyville and Fort Bragg visit Cloverdale.
