CHICO — A wrong turn on the cross country course cost Clear Lake High School’ s Hannah Garrity on Saturday during the Chico Autumn Invitational at Hooker Oak Park in Chico.
Garrity had an 18-second lead over her closest pursuer in the 71-girl field when the junior lost her way on the 5,000-meter course. Before she could recover and get back on track previous time had been lost and she ended up placing 21st at 22 minutes, 43.46 seconds.
Ava-Marie Csutoras of Chico won the race in 20:29.86 and Chloe Alchin of Pleasant Valley was the runner-up in 20:35.61.
The majority of the field was made up of runners from the Northern Section.
Garrity placed third in the same race a year ago.
Garrity is back in action Wednesday when Clear Lake hosts Kelseyville and Lower Lake in a North Central League I meet at Highland Springs. Racing begins at 3:30 p.m.
In other cross county action Saturday:
M’town at Mariner Invitational
At Hayward, running the Hayward High School course that hosts the North Coast Section Championships next month, the Middletown Mustangs sent complete boys and girls teams to the 39th P. Wilder Mariner Invitational.
In the 3-mile boys race, which featured more than 300 runners, Baron Chang led the Mustangs with a 189th-place finish of 18 minutes, 38.30 seconds.
Finishing behind Chang were teammates Dean McComas (196th in 18:47.61), Bryton Caviness (233rd in 19:48.52), Aiden Cadwallader (234th in 19:49.98), Caden Gotz (260th in 20:54.20) and Wayne Chiffoleau (278th in 22:45.44).
Seth Morello of Albany won the race in 14:28.35.
In the girls 3-mile race, which featured more than 350 runners, Nicole Pyzer led Middletown with a time of 20:36.48, good for 101st place. Cat Barriga was the next Mustangs runner to finish, placing 165th in 21:53.44.
Following Pyzer and Barriga to the finish line were teammates Issy Barriga, 223rd in 23:11.54; Holly McComas, 238th in 23:27.95; and Sara Sintubin, 296th in 29:38.46.
Tatum Olesen of Menlo-Atherton won the race in 17:29.91.
Middletown’s cross country teams join Cloverdale in a league meet at Willits on Wednesday.
