Staying on track toward entering the season-ending Sonoma County League championship meet in first place, and in control of their own title destiny, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity cross-country girls ran past longtime SCL foe Analy in Wednesday's road dual meet.
Racing on the 2.7-mile Ragle Ranch course in Sebastopol, the Lady Dragons placed first-through-fifth en route to claiming a 15-40 runaway victory, led by junior Madeline Libbey, who remained unbeaten in SCL duals by finishing in first place with a time of 17 minutes, 12 seconds.
Also leading the Sonoma girls were freshman Quinn Jensen's second place in 18:03; frosh Eliza Neeley's third in 18:14; sophomore Grace Cutting's fourth in 18:17; sophomore Maddie Cashel's fifth in 18:20; frosh Helena Goodman's 13th in 20:14; and sophomore Crystal Rodriguez's 14th in 20:33.
In the varsity boys' race on the Ragle Ranch course, the Dragon runners dropped a 21-37 decision to Analy, with Sonoma junior Travis Claeys crossing the finish line with a second-place time of 14:58.
The Dragon boys were also paced by junior Leo Macedonio's fifth place in 15:32; senior Return Bongiovani's ninth in 16:47; senior Ian Sloop's 10th in 16:55; sophomore Angel Barcenas' 11th in 16:59; sophomore Campbell Martin's 13th in 17:12; and senior Graham Herder's 14th in 18:10.
The Dragon cross-country teams will host El Molino in both their SCL dual-meet and home finales at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, on the Maxwell Farms Regional Park course.
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Prior to Wednesday's Marin County Athletic League matches at the Sonoma Aquatic Center pool, Sonoma's water polo program honored its four seniors, including Adam Curry, Ella Mighell, Amanda Ramponi and Rick Taggesell.
Then the Dragon varsity water polo boys found themselves in an MCAL battle with visiting Marin Catholic, which Sonoma coach Flynn O'Brien described as, "The most exciting and intense Dragon boys water polo game that I've ever seen."
In control of their showdown, and holding a 6-5 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Sonoma boys, who had thwarted all nine of the Wildcats' power plays in the first three periods, finally yielded two power-play goals. The Dragons were outscored 4-1 down the stretch, and Marin Catholic escaped with a 9-7 win.
Pacing Sonoma were Curry's three-goal hat-trick; junior Jack Lewis' two goals; and juniors Cian Lacy and Max Shepard's one goal each.
For the water polo Lady Dragons, they, unfortunately, had to face powerful MCAL first-place Marin Catholic and were swamped with a 25-1 final decision. Sonoma's lone goal was scored by sophomore Cameron Taggesell.
The Sonoma water polo teams wrapped up their season with MCAL matches against Justin-Siena in the Napa Valley College pool yesterday – results not available at presstime.
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