College of the Redwood Athletics

College of the Redwoods hosted the Golden Valley Conference Cross Country Championships on Friday, with mixed fortunes for the home teams.

The CR women placed five runners in the top nine to take the team championship, while a young CR men’s team, which came into the event with realistic ambitions of a conference title, placed second to Butte.

Maggie Stacy and Sean Dugdale both placed third overall to lead the way for the Corsairs.

Stacy finished the women’s 5K course in a time of 22 minutes, 50 seconds, which was a new PR for the Fortuna runner.

Shasta College’s Grace Southern won the race in a of 19:19.

Kristin Bonomini placed fourth overall for CR, a remarkable achievement considering she was competing in only her second ever cross country meet, according to her coach.

Desaraie Cox was fifth overall, giving the Corsairs three runners in the top five, with teammates Cheyenne Wilson eighth and Brianna Green ninth.

Wilson and Green are both sprint specialists for the CR track team but joined the cross country squad this fall to give the team enough runners to compete for a conference title.

“I’m proud of all these women who stepped up to support the program and represent the school,” CR head coach Reed Elmore said.

The CR women will now go on to the NorCal championships.

Dugdale led a shorthanded CR men’s team and finished the men’s four-mile course in a time of 23:43.

College of the Redwood Athletics

Butte’s Liam Sehorn won the race in a time of 22:52.

CR’s Ian Bennett was fourth and teammate Kyle Byrne was fifth, giving the home team three runners in the top five.

Unfortunately for CR, however, a deeper Butte team placed six runners in the top 10 to claim the team championship.

“The guys, even though they were not at full strength, fought hard,” said Elmore, who was missing Henry Lamb, one of his top five runners, through injury.

Thomas Becannon placed 11th for CR with teammate Caleb Mucho one spot further back on his return from a month-long layoff because of injury.

“I’m super proud of the guys,” Elmore said. “They fought as hard as they could. Most of them are freshmen and losing is hard, but you can learn a lot from it.

“Today they learn how to fight through adversity, and we will come back stronger.”