The Oakdale High School cross country teams turned in an impressive outing at the Valley Oak League Meet #2 at Legion Park in Modesto on Oct. 3. Oakdale’s varsity girls finished 6-0 against the rest of the league to improve their record to 12-0.

Finishing in second place in the five-kilometer run was junior Kayden Legan with a speedy time of 20:34. Two weeks ago, freshman Haleigh Humble broke the school record and at the second VOL meet, Humble placed fifth overall finishing the race at 20:57. Fellow freshman Hannah Beth Norman placed 11th overall at 21:57 and junior Kendra Branch was 12th overall at 22:26.

For the varsity boys, senior Dustin Chavez placed fourth in the five kilometer race with a time of 16:58. Sophomore Tanner Cusano turned in a top ten performance at 17:30 and finished in seventh place.

Oakdale’s junior varsity programs are improving each week as the girls had two top five finishers. Sophomore Jennifer Blanco placed third overall with a time of 25:56. Junior Mariyn Waterman placed fourth overall at 26:26. For the JV boys junior Stephen Badger placed third overall at 19:46. Justin Carlos, a senior, placed sixth at 20:24 and sophomore Dean Dodge earned an eighth place finish. The freshman and sophomore boys team had a trio of top 10 placers. Ernesto Gonzalez placed third at 11:48, Dominic Robles earned an eighth place finish at 12:01 and eight seconds behind Robles was Dylan French to finish ninth.

Coach Guy Fowler pointed out that the course at Legion Park had a few miscues with their signs leading to a bit of confusion for the runners.

“We had some difficulties with the course not being marked that well that led to some runners running off course which affected individuals’ times, but not the overall team placement,” Fowler said. “The kids handled this very well and it did not affect their concentration on what they had to do. This is a great bunch of runners who are getting better and better every day.”

Oakdale will use this week to practice, with their next meet scheduled on Saturday, Oct. 13 at Hughson for the Hughson Supercross.