By PETE SIMONCINI
Sports Correspondent
A total of 16 members of the Oakdale Mustangs varsity track and field team placed among the top six entrants, or eclipsed the at-large time standard for his or her event even though not finishing in the top six, in 14 different events at the 2023 Sac-Joaquin Section, Division III Track and Field Championships. The competition was hosted at Lincoln High School in Stockton, May 9 and 11, with the 16 qualifying to advance to the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet at Davis High School in Davis, May 19 and 20.
On Tuesday’s first day of the meet, sophomore Memphis Carr finished in second place in the finals of the girls’ shot put with a heave of 38 feet, 11¼ inches to advance to the next level. Carr was joined by freshman Grant Gardner in the boys’ pole vault finals who finished tied for fifth with a vault of 10 feet, six inches.
Two Oakdale High School records fell in the preliminary heats of the track events. Senior Caleb Cavanaugh unleashed a record 1 minute, 55.67 seconds 800-meter run to become the top qualifier for Thursday’s finals, and fellow senior Kylie Nunes, in finishing second in the 300-meter low hurdles, broke her own week-old school record with a time of 45.20 seconds. Cavanaugh’s performance broke the 50-year-old record of 1 minute, 57.20 set by Bruce Orvis on a dirt track in 1973. On Thursday, Cavanaugh would go on to finish third overall in the 800-meters with a time of 1 minute, 59.96 seconds, while Nunes finished second in the 300-meter hurdles in 45.21 seconds, missing Tuesday’s record time by one one-hundredth of a second.
Additionally, both Cavanaugh and Nunes qualified in more than one event for the Masters’ meet. Cavanaugh seemingly finished out of the advancers in seventh in the 1,600-meter run, but his time of 4:26.36 bettered the established at large standard for the race qualifying him to move on in that event. Nunes had an incredible meet finishing fifth in the 100-meters in 12.37 seconds to set an Oakdale High School record and qualify for the Masters’ meet and was a member of both the 4 by 100-meters and 4 by 400-meters relay teams that also qualified. Nunes’ 100-meters performance broke the existing record of 12.39 held by Jill Santucci Burford by two one-hundredths of a second. Regarding the relays, the 4 by 100-meters team of Gabby Carranza, Lynsey McPhee, Kylee O’Neal and Nunes finished fourth in 49.03 seconds, breaking the existing school record, while the 4 by 400-meters relay team of Brady Wylie, Rylee Harris, Nunes and McPhee finished a strong second to champion Christian Brothers High School of Sacramento by but a second-and-a-half.
Head track and field coach Dave Bacigalupi was effusive in lauding Nunes and her teammates: “I can’t say enough about Kylie Nunes who ran both relays, the 100-meters and the 300-meters on Tuesday and Thursday and had two individual school records and one relay record. And I don’t want to not mention Lynsey McPhee who ran four events on Tuesday and three on Thursday including both relays. Both girls are full of heart and determination. So hard to run that many events for those two girls within two days and have the kind of performances they did.”
Junior hurdler Cameron Guthrie was also a double qualifier for the Masters, finishing third in both the 110-meter high hurdles (15.60) and the 300-meter low hurdles (40.66). Senior Tyler Cooley tied for fifth in the high jump with a leap of 5 feet, 11 inches to also qualify for the meet in Davis.
As has been the case all year long, however, it was the distance group that led the way for the Mustangs in the divisional meet, with six of the nine runners moving on.
“I also can’t say enough about the distance team as whole this year,” said Bacigalupi. “They have been amazing and (on Thursday) night they were running to move on to next week, not so much trying to run their fastest.”
He added the trip to Masters “will be fun for them to see what they can do.”
In addition to Cavanaugh’s amazing performance, senior Dax Daley and junior Omar Alsaidi were phenomenal in the 1,600-meters and the 3,200-meters. Brigham Young University-bound Daley finished third in the 3,200 with a time of 9:27.30 with Alsaidi hot on his heels finishing fourth in the 20-runner field in 9:28.10. Alsaidi and Daley reversed the order of finish in the 1,600 and were just as close to each other with the junior finishing third in 4:21.84 and the senior less than a half second behind in 4:22.29. Junior Jackson Oliveira finished fifth in the 3,200 in 9:30.26 while sophomore Ismael Dominguez finished seventh but qualified to head to Davis by eclipsing the at-large time standard by running the eight laps in 9:32.99. Mason Oliveira narrowly missed qualifying for the Masters meet, finishing 11th in 9:48.52.
On the girls’ side of the meet, Kassidy Fmura performed in her usual rock-steady fashion by finishing fourth in a 19-woman field in the 3,200 in 11:27.32. Head distance coach Guy Fowler was elated by the group’s overall performance.
“It was a good meet for the distance runners,” said Fowler. “We were focused on advancing without spending too much energy. This is a tough meet. Not a lot of recovery time between races and they handled the workload with ease. (Masters) is going to be fun with State Meet berths on the line.”
Narrowly missing qualifying for the Masters in specific events were McPhee (8th in both the 200-meters in 26.74 and the triple jump with a leap of 33’ 4 ½ ”), freshman Bradie Evans in the 1,600 meters (5:34.93), Brookelyn Baba (8th in the 100-meters hurdles (17.77) and 8th in the high jump (4’7”), Savannah Rivera (11th in the long jump with a leap of 14’10 ½”), Hayden Morton (7th in the discus with a throw of 109 feet, 1 inch), Carr in the discus (10th in 99’01”) and Aidan Vargas (9th in the pole vault with a jump of 10 feet even).
Both the Mustangs girls and boys teams finished strongly in the overall team standings, with the girls finishing tied for second with 34 points and the boys earning fourth place with 43 points. Both groups hope to extend the glory of what has been an astonishingly successful 2023 track and field season for the Mustangs by performing well in the Masters Meet with the goal of sending athletes forward to the California State Meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis, May 26 and 27.
