DAVIS, Calif. – Senior Maddie Pelfrey finished second in the pole vault with a leap of 12 feet, no inches; while junior Grace Dunham took third in the 1,600-meter run with a personal-best time of 5:02.27, leading St. Francis on the second day of the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters track & field championships at Ron & Mary Brown Stadium Saturday.
The top three finishers in each event, plus those who hit at-large qualification standards, earn berths in the CIF State Championships, held at Buchanan High next Friday and Saturday. The exception is the new 4x800 relay, which advances only two boys' and two girls' squads. The Troubadours nabbed one of those two spots during Friday's session at the Masters meet.
Pelfrey broke the 12-foot threshold for just the third time in her history, after the school-record 12-6 at the 2022 Delta League championships and the 12-2 at the 2023 SJS Division I championship meet a week earlier. Incredibly, Pelfrey soared to such heights despite taking part in St. Francis' Grad Night festivities the day before. The Troubie seniors had their graduation ceremony on Thursday afternoon, boarded a bus for Southern California that night, spent all day Friday in the iconic park, then returned to Sacramento early Saturday morning.
Pelfrey's 12-0 matched her friend and rival Abby Wagner of Pleasant Grove, outlasting Pioneer's Maddy Juhler (11-6) and Del Oro's Paloma Baumert (11-6) in the process. Wagner won the individual championship based on attempts, having cleared 11-0 on the first attempt while Pelfrey cleared the bar on her second. Wagner also had one fewer attempt in beating 12-0. They both passed on 12-3, then each went 0-for-3 at 12-6.
Dunham led the first lap, then settled into a three-person battle with eventual winner Katie Kopec of Whitney and Norah Dulaney of host Davis. She crossed the line in five minutes, 2.27 seconds, an improvement from her previous best of 5:03.87 from the section divisional. Dunham also moved up from ninth in school history to eighth, with just .03 separating her from Miranda Myers' No. 7 time of 5:02.24 from 2013.
Junior Kayla Towne wrapped up the day for St. Francis with a seventh-place 2:20.54 in the 800. Towne will join Dunham, senior Daphne Witherell and junior Kelsey Sutch as part of the 4x800 relay team at the state meet.
Information about the CIF state meet will be posted to the organization's website at cifstate.org/sports/track_and_field/tf_champs. Links to tickets and live results will also be available at GoTroubies.com in the days prior to the meet.
2023 SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY 2
Ron & Mary Brown Stadium (Davis, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winners plus SF finishers listed • All events are finals
GIRLS' POLE VAULT - 1. Abigail Wagner, Pleasant Grove, 12-0... 2. Maddie Pelfrey, 12-0.
GIRLS' 1,600 METERS - 1. Katie Kopec, Whitney, 4:56.80... 3. Grace Dunham, 5:02.27
GIRLS' 800 METERS - 1. Lilly Escorcia, Elk Grove, 2:16.50... 7. Kayla Towne, 2:20.54.
