Tracy’s Eagle Lakes hosted the cross country Valley Oak League (VOL) #2 meet on Tuesday, Oct. 6. All eight of the VOL schools showed up and battled it out in six different races. Oakdale’s frosh and sophomore girls’ team finished 6-1 in the two mile run with top finishers Bailee Garcia, Dahlia Flores and Kaitlyn Dickson finishing within 17 seconds of each other. As a team, Oakdale went 11-3 on the day and tied for first with Lathrop.

The varsity boys finished the day with a 10-4 record, tied for second place with Manteca. In the three mile race, Justin Crescenti, Daniel Prado and James Forkner were top finishers separated by 30 seconds. Oakdale went 5-2 in the event. Sierra’s varsity boys went on to claim the championship with a 14-0 record. Much like the varsity boys, the junior varsity boys finished with a 10-4 record giving them second place on the afternoon, just behind Sierra (12-2). Garrett Ruthman, Andrew Howard and Diego Gonzales were the top finishers and finished within 11 seconds of each other in the three mile run. In a four way tie for second place, the freshman and sophomore boys posted a 9-5 effort, behind Sierra who finished with a perfect 14-0 record. Oakdale’s John Foreman, Cody Golding and Alexander Trujillo delivered top performances and were separated by less than one minute.

Oakdale’s varsity girls ran their way to a third place finish with a record of 8-6. The girls went 4-3 in their three mile run as Kristin Aguilar blazed through the course with a time of 22:12 for Oakdale. Suzey Aguilar and Ruby Houchens were also top performers. Oakdale’s junior varsity girls finished in third place with a 10-4 record. In their three mile run, Alexes Starkweather ran her way to a 27:56 effort for the Lady Mustangs.

“Even though the teams did very well and are on track to have winning seasons, our performance lacked a little enthusiasm. I do not know what it was but it is our job as coaches (Coach Lori Vargas and myself) to find out what caused it and to correct the problem,” said head coach Guy Fowler. “They are very young team and I believe they learned a lot from today’s performance. Time to regroup, get some good training in and prepare for the VOL Championships on October 27.”