A day after the Oakdale High School track and field team hosted a scrimmage meet against Escalon, the varsity teams competed in the 2019 Stanislaus County Meet. The meet took place at Turlock High School and had 16 schools compete. In their first major meet of the season, both the boys and girls placed in the top five. The varsity girls placed second overall with a total of 117 points, nine points off first place Turlock. For the boys it was a third place finish as they totaled 79 points. Turlock placed first at 164 points and Pitman placed second at 108.
The girls got off to a strong start with their runners. Senior Carley Maaske placed fourth in the 100 meters at 13.40. Senior Paris Thompson placed seventh in the 200 meters at 28.84. Underclassmen Hannah Beth Norman, Haleigh Humble and Kayden Legan all had impressive afternoons. Norman placed ninth in the 400 meters at 66.13. Humble took second in the 800 meters at 2:30.46 and Legan earned a second place finish in the 1600 meter race at 5:24.78. Humble, Thompson, Norman and Legan teamed up for the 4x400 relay and finished second overall at 4:24.02.
In hurdles Kyndall Green earned a fourth place finish in the 100 meter hurdles. Junior Kendra Branch placed second in 300 meter hurdles at 52.29.
Throwers had a big day for Oakdale as well, as sophomore Emma Harper took first place in both the shot put and the discus. Her throw of 35-02.50 in the shot put was four and a half inches further than second place. In discus she threw for 136-02; which was 21 feet further than second place. Valerie Osborne placed fourth overall in discus at 106-06.
Taylor Lamb tied for third in the high jump at 4-08.00. In the long jump Maaske placed second overall at 16-01.50 and was fourth overall in the triple jump at 32-04.50.
Paving the way for the boys, sophomore Zeke Saffar placed second in the 100 meter race. He completed the race in 11.29. Senior A.J. Martinez earned first place in the 110 meter hurdles at 16.48. Senior Cameron Burke placed second in the 300 meter hurdles at 41.50 and Martinez earned third place at 42.20.
The foursome of Martinez, Burke, Saffar and John Foreman earned third in the 4x100 crossing the line at 44.41. Martinez, Burke, Saffar and Jake Kettering placed sixth in the 4x400 relay at 3:44.54.
Junior Ben Chappell earned first place in the discus at 137-04 and took second in the shot put at 44-05.00. Junior Angel Penunuri took third in shot put at 41-05.00. In pole vault senior Grayson Paulus placed fifth and Justin Carlos took sixth place. Paulus cleared at 12 feet even and Carlos cleared 11-06.00.
In the long jump Saffar earned a third place finish at 20-01.50.
This Thursday, March 14, the track team returns home to take on Central Catholic at 3:30 p.m.
