Cornejo wins double, Joaquin sets meet record

Posted: Mar 25, 2022

FAIR OAKS, Calif. — Senior Tatiana Cornejo won both the 800- and 1,600-meter races while senior Cate Joaquin dominated the 3,200 race with a meet record, highlighting St. Francis action at the Bronco Roundup Distance & Pole Vault Carnival Friday night at Bella Vista High School.

Cornejo posted a personal-record 5:04.46 to capture the 1,600 to start the meet, then lunged ahead of Whitney's Katie Kopec at the finish line for a personal-record 2:16.36 in the 800. Kopec finished a hundredth of a second behind at 2:16.37.

Then in the meet's final girls' race, Joaquin bested the field by almost 30 full seconds, clocking a 10:32.15 to runner-up Natalie Wieland of Ponderosa (11:11.75). Wieland prevented a 1-2-3 Troubadour trifecta in the race, as Grace Dunham finished third (11:35.07) and Ryann Strawn placed fourth (11:43.27).

Joaquin's time shattered the old meet record of 10:57.30, set by Escalon's Amanda Moreno back in 2005. Moreno later competed and coached at UC Santa Barbara. Joaquin is headed to Georgetown this fall, while Cornejo committed to Cal Poly. Joaquin already ranked fourth in the school record book entering the meet, but the new PR inches her closer to No. 3 Sydney Vandegrift, who went 10:32.12 at the 2017 Arcadia Invitational. Lauren LaRocco holds the SFHS benchmark of 10:23.10 from the 2014 CIF state meet.

The Bronco Roundup consists of the three CIF championship distance races – namely, the 800, 1600 and 3200 – plus the pole vault. The top three finishers in each heat also received a commemorative T-shirt, while the winner of the final heat won a straw hat as a prize.

In addition to Cornejo and Joaquin, St. Francis boasted heat winners in Carly Hall (Heat 4, 1600) and Tatum Brown (Heat 1, 800).

Meanwhile, on the pole vault runway, junior Maddie Pelfrey finished third with a leap of 11 feet, eight inches. She had an opportunity to break Meghan Ladd's school record – coincidentally, set at the 2018 installment of the Bronco Roundup – but came up short. Dublin's Jathiyah Muhammad went on to win that event at 13-7, which puts her in a tie atop the California state rankings.

The Troubadours return to action in the first of two Delta League center meets on Wednesday. Davis High will host the meet at its own Halden Field starting at 1:30 p.m.

2022 BRONCO ROUNDUP DISTANCE & POLE VAULT CARNIVAL
Bella Vista High School (Fair Oaks, Calif.)
Girls events only • Winner plus all SFHS finishers listed

800 METERS - 1. Tatiana Cornejo, St. Francis, 2:16.36… 6. Kayla Towne, 2:22.01; 20. Pamela Vargas, 2:33.41; 21. Kelsey Sutch, 2:34.47; 29. Claire Silva, 2:36.60; 33. Magdalena Becerril, 2:37.98; 59. Amelia Bell, 2:48.38; 71. Kayla Hussey, 2:52.44; 83. Tatum Brown, 2:56.52; 88. Lydia Jauregui, 2:57.49; 93. Nora Matthews, 2:59.18; 125. Yixin Huang, 3:24.00.