SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Juniors Grace Dunham and Kayla Towne each posted personal-best times to move up in the St. Francis record book, while senior Maddie Pelfrey and the foursome of Colleen Medina, Towne, Penelope Cole and Sarah Charles both finished second in their respective events, highlighting a select crew of St. Francis student-athletes at the 40th Sacramento Meet of Champions track & field meet, held Saturday at American River College.

Towne finished third in the Invitational edition of the girls' 800-meter run with a time of two minutes, 15.33 seconds, moving her up one place to fifth in the Troubadour record book. She jumped ahead of Haley Silva, who ran a 2:16.47 at the 2019 Sac-Joaquin Section championships before going on to a collegiate career at Cal.

Dunham placed seventh in the Invitational girls' 1,600 at 5:04.47, displacing another Golden Bear runner in the history book: Ariane Arndt previously held the No. 10 slot in the school leaderboard with her 5:04.58 at the 2016 Bronco Invitational. Dunham's entering mark was a 5:10.49, set at the Dublin Distance Fiesta more than a month earlier.

The Open 4x400 relay squad of Medina, Towne, Cole and Charles enjoyed one of the most surprising results. The Troubies were entered in the first and slower of the two heats (based on entering times), with the leadoff runner (Medina) having never competed in the event. Charles came through with a blazing anchor lap, crossing the line in 4:05.18 to finish second to Ripon's 4:03.77. Not only did that represent a huge improvement over St. Francis seed time of 4:18.60, but those top two times in Heat 1 outperformed the faster Heat 2 to finish 1-2 overall.

Pelfrey joined the long relay squad as the Troubies' other runner-up finish on the day. She hit her first attempt at 11-3, 11-6 and 11-9, but could not crack the 12-foot barrier. Still, Pelfrey's 11-9 matched her season best and was good for second in the meet behind only Pleasant Grove's Abigail Wagner (12-0). The UC Santa Barbara signee holds the school record of 12-6, set at the 2022 Delta League championships.

In between her appearances in the two Open relays, Charles competed in the 400-meter dash, breaking the one-minute mark for the third meet this season. She finished 10th in 59.59, a mere hundredth of a second off her personal best set at the Rocklin Invitational on March 25. Charles was honored at St. Francis earlier this week for committing to track & field at Chapman University.

The Sacramento Meet of Champions features top athletes from the Sac-Joaquin and North Coast sections. The entrants are then split between the Open session in the morning and early afternoon and the higher-seeded Invitational events in the evening. Charles (400 meters), senior Paige Quigley (3,200), junior Kelsey Sutch (800) and senior Donna Valizadeh (pole vault) represented St. Francis in the Open session, following the 4x100 relay of Lucia Vicio, Charles, Caitlin Hafenstein and Cole.

Pelfrey, Dunham and Towne competed in the Invitational session, as did 3,200 entrants Daphne Witherell and Ryann Strawn. Quigley and Witherell were also part of Tuesday's celebration of college athletics commitments, as the two will run at Seton Hall and Amherst, respectively.

St. Francis returns to action at the Delta League Championships, held at Elk Grove on April 29 and May 2.

2023 SACRAMENTO MEET OF CHAMPIONS