LAKE COUNTY — On the same day the Middletown High School cross country team rallied around the American flag during pre-race warmups to honor those killed on the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Mustangs had plenty else to think about as they towed the starting line for the annual Lake County Meet at Kelseyville.

Until the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 sports season gets underway, which isn’t expected to occur until Dec. 14 at the earliest, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the high school happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.

Cross country

Even at less than full strength, the Middletown varsity boys and girls squads dominated the competition to keep intact their long string of successes at the county meet. A handful of the team’s top runners skipped the meet to protest the firing of head coach Don Cobb, who was dismissed a few days earlier for violating school policy although administration officials would not say for the record what he had done to warrant termination.

Members of the team and community spoke on Cobb’s behalf at a school board meeting but Cobb was not reinstated. Assistant coach Anna Schneider took over for Cobb and coached the Mustangs the remainder of the season. During the Lake County Meet hosted by Kelseyville, those Middletown runners in uniform wore their singlets inside out to protest Cobb’s firing.

Erica Kinsel of Middletown won the girls race while Quinn Wynacht of Clear Lake won the varsity boys race.

Middletown’s boys and girls went on to repeat as North Central League I champions although the impact of Cobb’s sudden departure so early in the 2019 season created a wound that never fully healed.

When the Mustangs open their COVID-19-delayed 2020 season, they will return a handful of veteran runners and will have a new head coach in Taylor Tiraterra, a history teacher at the school and a former high school runner.