Me’che Brown just keeps getting better.
The Oakdale High sophomore set new personal bests in all four of her events to lead the Lady Mustangs to a second place finish at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV/V Championships at Modesto Junior College.
With 13 conferences struggling for only six berths to the SJS Masters tournament in 16 events, Brown qualified in all four of her races and saw Oakdale girls finish with 54 points. The tally was just three short of division IV champion, Cosumnes Oaks.
“I was very happy with the performances of both (the boys and girls), although I was a bit disappointed in the fact that we had a real opportunity to win the girls division and for the second year in a row we fell a bit short,” Oakdale coach Dave Bacigalupi said. “Overall it has been a great season and we have a very young team and we are all looking forward to next year.”
But this year isn’t over yet.
The Oakdale girls and boys combined for 17 advancements to this week’s SJS Masters Championships at Hughes Stadium on the Sacramento City College campus.
The boys finished third overall with 31 points, just four points behind second place River City and well behind champion Sierra (92 points).
Brown hit new personal records in the 200 (26.44 seconds) and 100 (12.75) to finish third and fourth respectively in the individual races. She also joined Justina Keith, Courtney Lopes and Carolina Vicklund on the second place 400 relay (third fastest in school history). Brown, Keith, Sara Aguayo and Kim Linder also finished fourth in the 1600 relay (fourth fastest in school history).
Jaylene Ponce took her second straight D-IV title in the shot put with a 34-11 throw to nab 10 team points. Carly Rogers and Brooke Wong continued their torrid season at the pole vault pit by finishing third and fourth respectively in the event.
Macey Caris (second, high jump), Sara Aguayo (fourth, 300 hurdles) and Dezirae Pennington (sixth, triple jump) also qualified for Masters. Linder (400) and Domi Powell (high jump) also placed seventh to see potential action at Masters as alternates.
Manny Hernandez led Oakdale boys by finishing first in the high jump with a 6 foot, 2 inch leap. Daniel Linder was second in the long jump while Marco Camacho was second in the discus and fourth in the shot put.
Linder, Bryan Berst, Gino Valente and Wyatt Coffey placed fifth in a thrilling 1600 relay that featured each of the last legs on six teams thundering down the stretch with a shot at first. Event champion, River City (3:26.41), was just over three seconds faster than sixth place Livingston.
Coffee also finished sixth in the 400 while Valente ended seventh (alternate to Masters). The 400 relay team of Coffey, Linder, Juan Gonzales and Anthony Munoz was eighth in a field of 18.
Masters action kicks off on Thursday with Trials and continues with Friday’s Masters Finals. The top three place winners in each event, along with athletes that reach the at-large standards, will qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation Track and Field Championships.
