OAKDALE — East Union may have a cross country dynasty in the making.
The Lancers’ varsity boys team secured a second straight championship after winning the Valley Oak League final Wednesday at Bloomingcamp Ranch, and the frosh-soph boys dominated en route to a first-place finish of their own.
East Union’s frosh-soph girls also claimed an outright title. Oakdale captured the varsity girls crown.
“We don’t have any seniors for the varsity boys,” East Union coach Rick Cuevas said. “We have some good things happening at East Union. I’m proud of all of my kids. They’ve put in some hard work.”
East Union beat out rival Sierra 35-59 to secure another varsity boys league championship after the two shared it a season ago. Marco Perez placed third in 16 minutes, 40.1 seconds to pace East Union. He edged ahead of Sierra’s Jesse Hurtado (fourth, 16:55.3), the 2017 VOL individual champion. Kimball’s Sinjun Tran (16:03.2) and Oakdale’s Dustin Chavez (16:23.5) were the top two placers.
East Union freshman Maury Ortiz (fifth, 17:02.1) and Weston Ranch’s Brian Arevalo (seventh, 17:09.8) finished in the top seven for all-league spots. The top 10 received medals and includes East Union teammates Johnny Sandoval (ninth, 17:31.1) and Charlie Sanders (17:36.4). Daniel Morales took 11th overall and was the last of East Union’s scoring contributors.
East Union’s Julia Vezaldenos (fourth, 20:38.8), Manteca’s Brianna Rodriguez (fifth, 20:53.7) and Sierra’s Sabrina Caldwell (seventh, 21:04.9) are the all-league varsity girls runners from the area.
Sierra standout Megan Oblin, the two-time defending VOL champion, did not compete. Manteca freshman Emilee Craighead (21:12.7) finished eighth, and Sierra’s Raiann Prieto (21:49.3) was 10th.
Oakdale freshman Haleigh Humble (19:03) seized the individual varsity girls title and was followed by teammate Kayden Legan (19:13.8) and Central Catholic’s Ashley Sams (20:29.9).
East Union swept the top five for frosh-soph boys, tallying 15 points to runner-up Oakdale’s 64. Noe Acevedo spearheaded the lopsided race, clocking a time of 12:05.1 while narrowly beating fellow Lancer Cooper Freeman (12:05.7). Jesus Velazquez (12:18.1), Abel Zuniga (12:19.1) and Ruben Martinez (12:29.6) rounded out the top five, and Manteca’s Daniel Gonzales (12:29.7) was not far behind.
The East Union frosh-soph girls occupied the top four spots en route to winning with 21 points. Amanda Perry (15:36.9), Loren Pablo (16:22.8), Jasmine Ruiz (16:48.0) and Malia Allen (16:53.7) crossed the finish in that order. Camilla Herrera of Manteca (17:17.2) took fifth.
Manteca’s Victoria Villalvazo and Sierra’s Rebecca Gilmore went 1-2 in junior varsity girls. Manteca’s Eduardo Zambrano, Sergio Espinosa and Emiliano Gonzalez ended up first, second and fourth, respectively, lead the Buffaloes to the JV boys championship.
Up next is the Sac-Joaquin Sub-Section Meet held at Frogtown in Angels Camp on Nov. 3.