Trailing Modesto High by only a few points, Oakdale’s varsity boys’ 1600 relay team knew they had to come through with a good time if they were to surpass the Panthers team score during the final event of the Stanislaus County Invitational.

Wyatt Coffee, Gino Valente, Daniel Linder and Bryan Berst landed a combined 3 minute, 32.51 second time to finish second overall in the relay finals, pushing Oakdale (96 points) just past Modesto (94.5) for the top overall score in the collection of 15 competing programs at Modesto Junior College on Friday.

The Oakdale girls also placed second overall in a day that saw some spectacular Mustang performances across the track and field.

“It’s the third year in a row the boys have won it, and it all came down to that last race,” Oakdale coach Dave Bacigalupi said. “I told the kids you have to give it everything you have, and I could not have been prouder with how they responded.”

Boys

Linder raced on the fifth place 400 relay team, won the long jump (21-.25) and set two personal records before finishing second in the triple jump (42-08.5) by just a quarter of an inch.

Marco Camacho continued his torrid season in the throwers pits by winning both the shot put (50-05) and discus (156-02). Eric Snow was third in both events as well.

Matt Gehring and Manny Hernandez each jumped 5-10 to finish second and third in the high jump.

Berst was third in the 800 and eighth in the 1600 while Coffey (fourth) and Valente (seventh) finished top-8 in the 400. Valente was also seventh in the 200 and Juan Gonzales 8th in the 100.

Girls

Macey Caris and Hayley McIntyre each cleared 5 feet to take first and second in the high jump. Sarah Aguayo won the 300 hurdles (49.16) while McIntyre and Jaylene Ponce were runners-up in the discus and shot put, respectively.

Me’che Brown was third in the 200 and fourth in the 100 and completed the final leg of a third place 400 relay team with Carolina Viklund, Courtney Lopes and Trisha Carlos.

Kim Linder exploded for a big effort to finish second in the 400 while Ashlyn Durham was fourth in both the 800 and 1600. Hailey Macedo was eighth in the 1600 and fourth in the 3200. Jordan Esparza ended eighth in the 100 hurdles as well.

Oakdale’s last race was a second place finish from Brown, Aguayo, Justina Keith and Kim Linder in the 1600 relay.