The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs cross country runners put in one of their best team efforts this past week at the Valley Oak League (VOL) Meet #2. The big league competition took place Wednesday, Oct. 4 at Legion Park in Modesto.

Sophomore Kayden Legan finished second overall in the varsity girls 5k run. Legan finished with a time of 20:53. Junior Paris Thompson placed 13th overall at 22:45 and sophomore Emily Takaki placed 15th at 23:05. Their overall record as a unit is now 10-4.

The junior varsity girls finished 7-0 on the day and a trio of runners placed in the top ten. Juniors Analaura Navarro placed third overall at 24:47 and Lorena Becerra placed sixth at 26:28. Senior Kaitlyn Dickson placed eighth for Oakdale at 26:53. The frosh/soph girls team also had three runners place in the top ten in their division. Freshman Kali Jericoff came in second at 14:59 and sophomore Daniela Dela Riva placed seventh at 16:06. Fellow sophomore Samantha Ballard placed ninth at 16:21.

For the varsity boys, James Forkner placed eighth overall. The senior speedster finished at 17:42. Russell Pabalan crossed the finish line at 18:09 for a 14th overall finish and freshman Tanner Cusano placed 19th at 18:29.

In junior varsity boys action three Oakdale runners placed in the top 15 with Arturo Verduzco coming in 10th at 21:22. Andrew Cazares (21:40) came in 13th and Anthony Rope (21:54) came in 15th.

An impressive day for the frosh/soph boys team as Oakdale had two top five finishers in Seth Borba and Austin Bruner. Borba (11:49) came in third and eleven seconds behind him was Bruner to place fourth. Clayton Bashor crossed the line at 12:22 to place sixth overall.

“Every single runner came out today and competed,” coach Guy Fowler said. “They have been training really hard the last two weeks and it has paid off. They have put themselves in a very good position heading into the league finals on October 24.”

Oakdale’s next race will be Saturday, Oct. 14 at Hughson for the Hughson Supercross Meet.