MODESTO — A surprising freshman helped Sierra’s girls team claim an outright title, while Sierra’s boys also ran the table despite having just one all-league finisher in the Valley Oak League Championships on Tuesday at Tuolumne River Regional Park.

Weston Ranch, meanwhile, had the top varsity placers in reigning Manteca Bulletin All-Area Girls Runner of the Year Iris Carrillo and Tomas Huerta. It’s the second league title for Carrillo, a junior and returning state qualifier.

With senior Candice Lao ailing, Megan Oblin picked up the slack for the Sierra girls and finished third behind Carrillo and East Union’s Julia Vezaldenos, also a freshman. Lao still took sixth to earn an all-league spot, which go to the first seven finishers. Lathrop’s Crystal Baltazar took fifth. The event was not timed.

Sierra held off runner-up East Union, 47-51. Lathrop (114), Weston Ranch (180) and Manteca (224) were the Nos. 5-7 teams.

“It was nice to see our freshman step up,” Sierra coach Mike Rosendin said, adding that Oblin started out the year on the school’s volleyball team. “She was our No. 6 runner in the first meet and she has steadily improved. It will be nice to see what she does in the future once she gets some strong training behind her.”

His boys squad needed a team effort for its championship run. Trevor Ryan placed seventh and was the Timberwolves’ lone male all-league performer, but their top six runners finished no worse than 18th. Other area harriers earning all-league were Weston Ranch’s Alec Araquel (second) and Manteca’s Epifanio Estrada (fifth) and Juan Gomez (sixth).

“The league has a lot of top runners,” Rosendin said. “We don’t’ have that front runner, but the important thing for the team is that we have the depth to compete. We pulled up three of our frosh-soph runners to the varsity boys team and still went 1-5 in the frosh-soph race.”

Sierra dominated in winning the frosh-soph boys title with 15 points. Jesse Hurtado spearheaded the champions. Sierra’s Jessica Guzman took first in frosh-soph girls, but the league title goes to Oakdale with East Union taking a close second.

Manteca outpointed East Union 23-31 to claim the junior varsity girls crown behind Natalia Duran’s first-place finish. Javier Ornelas of Sierra is the junior varsity individual champion, but East Union handily won the team competition with 21 points. 

 Up next is the Sac-Joaquin Section Sub-Section Meet held Nov. 7 at Frogtown in Angels Camp.