ARCADIA, Calif. – Senior Tatiana Cornejo broke a seven-year-old school record in the mile, then fellow senior Cate Joaquin eclipsed an even older benchmark in the 3,200-meter run, highlighting a small crew of St. Francis athletes at the famed Arcadia Invitational track & field meet Saturday.
Cornejo covered the mile in five minutes, 0.28 seconds to place seventh in the Seeded race. This broke the old school mark of 5:02.21 set by Peyton Bilo at the 2015 Stanford Invitational. Coincidentally, Bilo went on to run for Cal Poly, the very Big West Conference member institution for which Cornejo will run next year.
Roughly three hours later, Joaquin posted a 12th-place time of 10:20.97 in the 3,200, breaking Lauren LaRocco's old benchmark of 10:23.10 from the 2014 CIF state meet. LaRocco later went on to earn three USTFCCCA Outdoor All-America nods at Portland. Joaquin signed her National Letter of Intent to run for Georgetown back in November.
Junior Maddie Pelfrey kicked off the day for St. Francis in the Open division of the girls' pole vault. Oddly, she ran into some hard luck and then some fortune in her opening height of 3.22 meters, or 10 feet, 7 inches. On her third attempt, she easily cleared the bar, only to have her pole follow and knock the crossbar off its moorings. However, the adjacent 100-meter hurdles had recently been reversed to run from west to east as an adjustment to the wind. As such, the event judges ruled that the wind forced Pelfrey's pole into the bar, giving her a successful jump.
Unfortunately, Pelfrey missed all three attempts at 3.37m (11-1). She actually seemed to clear the bar on the third attempt but nicked the crossbar just enough to watch it tumble down after she hit the pit. Pelfrey finished 18th in her flight.
Cornejo was next up in the girls' Seeded one-mile run. She was largely tied up in the middle of the pack for the first and second lap, then found herself all alone in fourth at the bell. However, Peninsula's Aishling Callanan, Clovis North's Miliana Perez and Boise's Samantha Smith caught up to the future Cal Poly runner on the back stretch and final turn. Cornejo settled for seventh place but with the strong time.
The 5:00.28 time also converts to a 4:58.54 in the 1,600. Cornejo is one of only five runners in the Athletic.net/DyeStat era of the SFHS program ever to break five minutes in that event, having set the school record of 4:53.27 earlier this year. She entered Saturday's meet ranked ninth in the state and 19th nationally by Athletic.net.
Save for eventual winner Dalia Frias of Mira Costa, much of Joaquin's 3,200 field stayed tightly packed for the first two laps before the group began to separate. Joaquin made a charge along the back stretch of the bell lap, fighting her way to 12th place in a heat that featured a meet record of 9:55.50 (Frias).
The Carmichael resident's previous best was a 10:32.15, posted at the Bella Vista Bronco Distance Carnival two weeks prior. That time ranked her tops in the Delta League, 10th in the state and 19th nationally heading into the Arcadia Invite.
The remainder of the Troubadours competed in a dual meet at Davis on Saturday. Coverage of this meet is available at GoTroubies.com. St. Francis heads into its spring break and returns to action on April 20 for a Delta League center meet hosted at Jesuit.
2022 ARCADIA INVITATIONAL
Arcadia High School
Only events with SFHS finishers listed.
GIRLS' POLE VAULT OPEN - 1. Jordan Leveque, Buchanan, 3.83m (12-7)… 18. Madison Pelfrey, 3.22m (10-7).
GIRLS' SEEDED ONE MILE - 1. Audrey Allman, Glenbard West, 4:50.77… 7. Tatiana Cornejo, 5:00.28.
GIRLS' INVITATIONAL 3,200 - 1. Dalia Frias, Mira Costa, 9:55.50… 12. Cate Joaquin, 10:20.97.
