With the poor air quality having postponed the 2018 Sac-Joaquin Section Cross Country Championships from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17, the delay did not slow down the Oakdale High School Mustangs. The varsity girls team made a strong outing at Willow Hill in Folsom this past Saturday where the girls placed fifth overall as a team. More so, the team will have two runners representing Oakdale in the state meet as freshman Haleigh Humble and junior Kayden Legan qualified for the meet.

Humble continues to turn in a memorable inaugural high school season as she placed third overall in the Sac-Joaquin Section Varsity Girls Division III meet. In the run, Humble finished in 19:57.2, where she was approximately two minutes off the leader from Del Oro. A sixth place finish by Legan punched her ticket to the state championship with her speedy time of 20:23.1.

“I am extremely happy for Haleigh and Kayden, they have worked so hard this year. This is the first in school history that two athletes qualified for the state championships,” said coach Guy Fowler.

Also competing for Oakdale on the day was freshman Hannah Beth Norman (22:15.2; 28th overall), sophomore Lauren Schickert (24:49.7; 56th overall); and senior Alyssa Beltran (26:44.5; 63rd overall).

For the boys, senior Dustin Chavez competed as an individual for the Sac-Joaquin Section Championship Varsity Boys Division III and placed 35th overall at 18:07.0.

“Dustin gave it everything he had and it just wasn’t his day, he worked so hard to get to this point,” said Fowler.

Humble and Legan will compete in the 2018 CIF State Cross Country Meet at Woodward Park in Fresno with their race scheduled for noon on Saturday, Nov. 24.