With senior Owen Ljung and sophomore Madeline Libbey leading the way, respectively, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams left Elsie Allen in the dust en route to their Sonoma County League dual-meets sweep Wednesday afternoon at the Maxwell Farms Regional Park course.
The Sonoma boys outran the visiting Lobos on the 2.7-mile Maxwell Park layout for a 15-50 victory behind Ljung’s winning time of 14 minutes, 57 seconds, followed by teammates’ senior Keegan Ginter’s second-place finish in 15:58; senior Christian Martinez’s third in 16:34; freshman Leonardo Macedonio’s fourth in 16:39; junior Return Bongiovanni’s fifth in 16:47; junior Ian Sloop’s sixth in 16:51; sophomore Trevor Martinelli’s seventh in 18:13; sophomore Pablo Cruz’s ninth in 19:06; and frosh Austin Phillips’ 11th in 19:21.
In the girls’ race the Lady Dragon runners won with Elsie Allen’s incomplete score as Libbey cruised to a first-place finish in 19:08; followed by teammates frosh Maddie Cashel’s second place in 21:41; senior Jocelyn Mondragon’ third in 21:46; frosh Sofia Serbicki’s fourth in 23:44; frosh Crystal Rodriguez’s fifth in 24:14; frosh Andrea Correa’s sixth in 24:29; frosh Lidia Garcia’s eighth in 26:01; frosh Maggie Luque’s ninth in 27:04; and frosh Emma Rochlin’s 11th in 28:16.
The cross-country Dragon teams – competing in tomorrow’s, Saturday, Oct. 19 Ukiah Invitational – hit the SCL road for tri-meets against Analy and hosting Healdsburg at the Hoot Owl Creek Winery course this Wednesday, Oct. 23.
Sonoma’s boy and girl runners will then host SCL foe El Molino their home-finale dual meets at 4 p.m. on the Maxwell Park course on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
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In a nonleague road match on Tuesday, Sonoma’s young water polo boys not only won for the first time this season, but claimed their first varsity victory in more than two years.
With seven boys breaking in to the scoring column, the visiting Dragons beat St. Patrick-St. Vincent’s 12-9 in Vallejo behind junior Adam Curry’s three goals, two goals each by sophomore Cian Lacy and freshmen Justin Ring and junior Alex Colford, and one goal apiece by junior Caleb Horowitz and sophomores Jack Lewis and Max Shepard.
On Wednesday, Sonoma’s water polo boys hosted their season finale against defending Redwood Empire League champion Ukiah in the Sonoma Aquatic Center pool and, despite an improved effort, they dropped a 22-5 decision, with Curry scoring three goals for the Dragons, while Horowitz and Shepard each tallied a goal.
Though the varsity boys lost, the season ended on an up-note for Sonoma’s water polo program, with the junior varsity coed team pulling out a 10-8 win behind frosh Owen Summers’ three goals; Lewis’ and sophomore Fabian Mettelmen’s two goals each; and one goal apiece by Shepard, Ring and sophomore Jake Paine.
Rounding out the Dragons’ water polo teams, which were under the direction head coach Flynn O’Brien and assistant coach Dominic Quin-Harkin, were juniors Kaden Cable and Rick Taggesell; sophomores Natalie Baker and Joey Dukes; and frosh Cameron Baker, Brandon Barmore, Jackson Mighell, Cameron Taggesell and Noah White.
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