FOLSOM, Calif. – Senior Maddie Pelfrey won the pole vault title with a leap of 12 feet, 2 inches while the foursome of Kayla Towne, Grace Dunham, Daphne Witherell and Kelsey Sutch set a school record of nine minutes, 26.91 seconds in the 4x800 relay final, leading St. Francis on the first day of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I track & field championships, held at Prairie City Stadium Wednesday.

The Troubadours close the day with 21 points through five events: 10 points from Pelfrey's championship, eight from the 4x800 runner-up finish, and three from senior Lauren Riley's sixth-place showing in the discus throw.

Pelfrey's leap of 12-2 marks the second time she has surpassed the 12-foot barrier in her prep career, and the first since she set the St. Francis school record of 12-6 at the 2022 Delta League championships. Fittingly, she matched friend and rival Abigail Wagner of Pleasant Grove jump for jump: a make at 10-2, passes at 10-5, 10-8 and 10-11; first-attempt makes at 11-2 and 11-5, passes at 11-8, then a second-attempt clearing at 11-11. Pelfrey then bested Wagner in the jump-off at 12-2. Until Wednesday's meet, Wagner was the only other vaulter in the section to have beaten 12 feet, going 12-3 at Granite Bay's Sturgeon Invite.

The 4x800 foursome entered the divisional championship with the section's best time, thanks to a Delta League-winning 9:44.19 back on April 30. Whitney ended up winning the inaugural championship at 9:23.00, but the Troubies' 9:26.91 eclipsed the longest-standing school running record in the book: the 9:28.66 set by Megan Alexander, Katie Hartman, Sarah Krtil and Ingrid Kantola at the 2003 Stanford Invitational.

In fact, the previous benchmark was so enduring that the oldest member of the 2023 4x800 squad – Witherell – was born more than two years after Alexander/Hartman/Krtil/Kantola notched the old record at that Stanford meet. Coincidentally, Kantola was also the last Troubie to win the section pole vault title, a feat she accomplished with a 11-1.5 leap in 2003.

Riley was one of two SF finishers in the discus throw, taking sixth with a career-best 110-7 fling. This represented a two-inch improvement from her previous PR, set at the April 12 Delta League center meet.

Following Towne's participation in the relay, she ran the fastest 800 of the three prelim heats with a 2:17.26. She was one of three Troubie individuals to advance to Friday's finals by virtue of a top-10 finish on Wednesday. Senior Sarah Charles won the third heat of the 400 with a personal-best 58.84, a 0.24 improvement of her previous best from the Delta League finals. Junior Caitlin Hafenstein went 12.91 in the 100-meter dash for her best wind-legal mark of her career. That was good for eighth overall and .08 faster than the 12.99 set in the league prelims.

Charles later anchored the 4x400 relay to a 4:15.05, joining Colleen Medina, Pamela Vargas and Penelope Cole in the day's track finale. That time was fourth in the first heat but it held on to nab the No. 9 overall finish by more than four seconds. This helped assuage the Troubies' 4x100 relay, which missed the cut to Friday by a mere 0.21: the crew of Lucia Vicio, Cole, Hafenstein and Kyah Pickett went 51.22, trailing Del Oro's 51.01.

The section D-I meet resumes on Friday, with field events starting at 2 p.m. and running events at 5 p.m. The top eight finishers in each final advances to the SJS Masters Meet, held at Davis on May 19 and 20.

2023 SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION DIV. I TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY 1
Prairie City Stadium (Folsom, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winners/leaders plus SF finishers listed
All events are prelims except where noted

GIRLS' 4x800 RELAY FINALS - 1. Whitney (A. Kopec, Soto, Evers, Scott), 9:23.00... 2. St. Francis (Towne, Dunham, Witherell, Sutch), 9:26.91.

GIRLS' 4x100 RELAY - 1. Franklin (Veal, Okoh, Rogers, Taylor), 49.05... 11. St. Francis (Vicio, Cole, Hafenstein, Pickett), 51.22.

GIRLS' 400 METERS - 1. Ihe Okoh, Franklin, 56.86... 3. Sarah Charles, 58.84.

GIRLS' 100 METERS - 1. Ciella Seals, Tracy, 12.22 (w: -0.4)... 8. Caitlin Hafenstein, 12.91 (w: -0.4); 18. Kyah Pickett, 13.257 (w: -1.3).

GIRLS' 800 METERS - 1. Kayla Towne, St. Francis, 2:17.26... 17. Kelsey Sutch, 2:27.39.

GIRLS' 4x400 RELAY - 1. Lincoln (Stockton) (Harris, Glover, Brown, Turner), 4:00.59... 9. St. Francis (Medina, Vargas, Cole, Charles), 4:15.05.

GIRLS' POLE VAULT FINAL - 1. Maddie Pelfrey, St. Francis, 12-2... Donna Valizadeh, no height.

GIRLS' DISCUS THROW FINAL - 1. Sol Bitners, Davis, 135-10... 6. Lauren Riley, 110-7; 22. Elise Blomquist, 89-5.