Manteca and Oakdale visited East Union Thursday to open the Valley Oak League season, and while the Mustangs swept, the Buffaloes and Lancers split with the East Union boys claiming an 83-35 win, and the Manteca girls winning 66-55.
On the boys’ side, East Union’s Daniel Martz claimed first in the 1600, while Ryan Somphithack captured gold in the 100-meter dash and the triple jump.
Tim Mora finished first in the discus and Aaron Dyke won the 800.
For Manteca, Brad Hatfield took third in the high jump (5-feet, 5-inches), while Cameron Lucas was third in the 400-meter and second in the 200-meter.
“The boys did an awesome job,” EU head coach Anne Anthony said. “It was a good meet all around.”
On the girls’ side, Manteca’s Briana Lucas took second in the 200-meter and won the 400-meter, while Juliana Flores took second in the 100-meter.
“It was Briana’s first varsity meet and she performed well,” Buffaloes head coach Sean Hogan said. “She did a wonderful job.”
Janiece Villanueva took first in the 1600 and second in the 800 for East Union, and Veronica Villanueva claimed gold in the 3200.
Jenna Fields, meanwhile won both the shot put and discus events, and Kati Davi claimed the high jump crown.
Oakdale downed East Union 107-28 on the boys’ side and 92-43 on the girls’.
Sierra 114, Central Valley 20 (B)
The Timberwolves kicked off the VOL season with a pair of wins over the Hawks.
Among the highlights on the boys’ side, Bryan Smith finished first in the 110-meter high hurdles (17.01 seconds), and Matt Greer won the pole vault (11-feet).
Zeke Knapps claimed first in the 200-meter with a time of 23.62 seconds, and Jeremy Vargas was first overall in the 3200 (11:32).
John Bowers won both the 800 (2:12), and 1600 (4:57), Michael Garcia won the 300 hurdles (44:39), and Richard Lopez took home gold in the 400-meter (56:84).
For the girls, Courtney Whitlock won both the 110 and 300 hurdles with times of 17.14 and 51.31 seconds, respectively, while sister Becca finished second in the 110 (18.30) and third in the 300 (56.24).
Jessica Montiel won the 1600 (6:19), Taylor-Renee Wilson claimed the 400 in 1-minute, 6-seconds, Laurie Hoffman won the pole vault (7-6), and Jena Anderson was best in the triple jump (30-.5).
Christina Westover won both the discus (104-2) and the shot put (35-3), and Shenadra Pitts won the 200 with a time of 26.90 seconds.
“It was a good start to league,” Sierra head coach Anthony Chapman said. “The kids were anxious for it, and it was good to run against other schools.”
Next week, Sierra travels to Oakdale for a meet that has become the annual clash for VOL supremacy.
“We wanted them focused this week,” Chapman said, “because we have a monster next week. It’s always close when we face Oakdale, no matter who wins, it’s never a blowout. We’re hoping to be competitive.”
In the foothills, what was supposed to be a double-dual was scored as a tri-meet by Sonora, and, as a result, Weston Ranch head coach Rick Cuevas voiced his concerns with the VOL representative on hand.
The scoring will be worked out this week with the league.
The Cougars had a number of highlights, however, including solid performances from all of the usual suspects.
Roberto Alvarez took first in the 3200 and the 1600, finished second in the 800, and ran the anchor for the winning 4x400 team.
Kobie Good was outstanding, finishing first in the 100 and the 200 and was a part of the winning 4x100 team, while Angell Mayfield only ran the 110 hurdles, finishing first.
Mayfield is currently ranked No. 3 in California in the 300 hurdles, but rested a sore hamstring in the event Wednesday.
In the throwing events, Kendrick Parker claimed gold in the shot put and finished runner-up in the discus.
“We had a lot of second places,” Cuevas said. “It was a good meet for us, despite the scoring problems.”
The Cougars swept the 100 and 200’s and finished first, second and third in the 400’s.
Weston Ranch travels to Manteca next week for a double-dual – presumably – with Manteca and Lathrop.
