Oakdale High School’s cross country teams made their season debut in Tracy on Thursday, Aug. 30. The Mustang squad headed out to Eagal Lakes for the Jaguar Invitational.

Oakdale’s varsity girls finished in third place overall in their five kilometer race. Leading the way for the varsity girls was junior Kayden Legan who finished at third overall with a time of 21:47. Freshman Hannah-Beth Norman finished the race less than one minute later and came in at ninth place.

The Mustang varsity boys team came in at fifth place overall. Senior Dustin Chavez just missed a top ten finish as he placed 11th overall with a time of 18:33 in the five kilometer run. Freshman Simon Appel placed 19th overall and sophomore Tanner Cusano finished in 20th place.

The junior varsity boys team placed fifth overall. Seniors Morgan Bairos and Justin Carlos helped lead the team. Bairos placed 16th overall in the 2.1 mile run and Carlos placed 17th overall and finished one second behind Bairos.

Sophomore boys captured a fourth place finish. Daniel Creekmore impressed his coaches and teammates with a fifth place finish. Creekmore completed the 2.1 mile run at 13:32. Teammate Ernesto Gonzalez finished 35 seconds later and came in 14th overall.

“We had some solid performances today. It was nice to actually get a race in and see where we are in our training,” said head coach Guy Fowler. “We have some work to do but we think we can be extremely competitive in league when it starts in two weeks.”

Oakdale’s next event will be at Ceres for the Kim Duyst Invitational on Sept. 8.