With the largest number of athletes competing on record, there were over 5000 runners competing in Saturday’s subsection meet at Frogtown in Angels Camp.

“Last year Escalon qualified six individual runners and no teams. This year we qualified four teams,” said head coach Rick Heflin. “So 28 out of our 50 runners will be moving on to sections.”

For varsity races, 10 teams and 10 individuals qualify. In all other races, six teams and 10 individuals qualify.

“In just the JV race, three divisions are combined so our JV team had to beat quite a few Division 3 teams to make it,” noted Heflin.

A record 35 teams competed in the varsity boys race and Escalon placed fourth.

“We were the only TVL varsity boys team to advance,” Heflin said.

Leading the group was Eddy Calderon in 17:47, Gabe Romero 18:01, Emiliano Ramirez 18:20, Zack Gardner 18:28, Rex Robbins 18:28, Sam Fletcher 18:41, Juan Lopez 19:26.

“The first team in our race is pretty solid but then the next five teams are very close to each other. Two teams qualify for state,” explained Heflin of moving on to Sections. “That second spot could go to any of the five teams. It should be a very exciting race.”

The varsity girls placed ninth. Top runner was Yajaira Salinas at 21:11 followed by Nora Nash at 22:31, Jackie Lau 22:37, Marisol Aguayo 24:01, Lizeth Calderon 24:48, Gabriela Avalos 27:15 and Emily McPherrin 28:46.

The JV boys placed fifth. Leading the team were Daniel Gavin 18:59, Samuel Thomson 20:28, Josh Teske, Lucas Guadagnolo 22:04, John Lunn 22:59, Tim Megenney 23:51 and David Ryan 24:22.

The freshman boys placed fourth. Andres Cornejo led the group in 13:25, followed by Moises Grajeda 13:29, David Plascencia 13:42, Miguel Marmol 13:46, Gino Stern 13:59, Miguel Plascencia 14:12, and Max Teague 14:21.

The sophomore boys placed 10th and did not qualify. Jayden Lopez paced the effort in 13:36, Daniel Luis 13:42, Trenton Nascimento 13:53, Ross Calderon 14:05, Zach Pickett 14:13, Victor Gonzalez 14:35 and Danny Bava 15:03.

Sections are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 12 in Folsom.

This will be the last race for the non-varsity runners. The varsity can still advance to the next level.

“What makes this sport one of the toughest as a team sport is that we don’t get to stay together for the whole season and if one person is missing or having a rough day it seriously affects the whole team’s score,” Heflin noted. “I know people think running is individual but every place counts for your score. It takes a lot to be successful as a team and in Escalon we have a lot of support. We would like to thank all of the parents that have helped us this year and the community also for their support.”