MODESTO — East Union had a strong showing in the second of three Valley Oak League meets Wednesday at Legion Park.
The Lancers’ varsity and frosh-soph boys teams extended their leads in the standings, while Julia Vezaldenos stunned the varsity girls field with her first-place finish.
“I’m very pleased with my team overall,” East Union coach Rick Cuevas said. “With the varsity boys, I’m having a hard time slowing them down. They go hard in every race, they don’t like to go easy. It’s a good problem to have, because other team’s I’ve had had a hard time pushing themselves.”
East Union’s varsity boys outpointed rival Sierra 23-33 and Kimball, 24-33. Individually, Sierra’s Jesse Hurtado was again the top finisher in 16 minutes, 34 seconds and was followed by Kimball’s Sinjun Tran (16:36.3) and East Union’s Marco Perez (16:48.2). Freshmen Maury Ortiz and Johnny Sandoval took fifth and eighth for East Union while fellow Lancer Daniel Morales placed ninth. Sierra’s Irving Figueroa rounded out the top 10.
Oakdale’s varsity girls go into the league finale as the pacesetter after beating its chief competition, Sierra, 25-30. Vezaldenos ended strong for the top time of 20:19.2. Runner-up Kayden Legan of Oakdale clocked in at 20:34.2 with Manteca’s Brianna Rodriguez (20:40.2) and Sierra’s Megan Oblin (20:42.8) following suit.
Manteca’s Emilee Craighead (seventh), Sierra’s Sabrina Caldwell (eighth) and Sierra’s Raiann Prieto (10th) also had top-three finishes among area competitors.
“When we went to our running camp Julia matured as a runner,” Cuevas said. “It was like a magic wand hit her. She is working really hard and it’s showing. She’s the real deal. She knows that she can run with these girls now.”
The Lancers dominated at the frosh-soph level. On the boys side, Noe Acevedo (first, 11:26.4), Abel Zuniga (second), Jesus Velazquez (fourth) and Cooper Freeman (fifth) all made the top five.
East Union occupied the top four frosh-soph girls spots with Kassandra Rios (14.12.5), Amanda Perry, Loren Pablo and Jasmine Ruiz crossing the line in that order. Manteca’s Camilla Herrera took fifth.
Manteca teammates Aidan Moran (19:26.3) and Victoria Villalvazo (23:34.9) took first in junior varsity boys and girls, respectively.
The VOL Championships is set for Oct. 24 at Bloomingcamp Ranch in Oakdale.