ARCADIA, Calif. – The 800-meter sprint medley relay squad of Lucia Vicio, Emma Bugarin, Gaby Gonzalez and Alexa Randall broke its own school record with a final time of one minute, 48.09 seconds in the Seeded race of the Arcadia Invitational track & field meet, highlighting St. Francis' action at the vaunted prep athletics event.

The SMR mark finished third in the event, behind only former Delta League foe Cosumnes Oaks (1:45.52) and Southern Section's Helix (1:47.63). The 1:48.09 surpasses the previous record of 1:49.21, set at the LeFebvre Relays more than a month earlier. Impressively, Randall moved from seventh to fourth on the back stretch of the anchor lap, then moved up to third place around the final curve to finish just two strides behind Helix for third.

The Troubadours nearly added a second school record in the 4x1600 relay, with the squad of Halle Welch, Rebecca Dickson, Miya Menza and Alyssa Gutierrez combining for a 20:34.99 for the No. 2 time in school history. That mark trails only the SF benchmark of 20:20.82, set by Tatiana Cornejo, Cate Joaquin, Claire Silva and Izzy Fauria at the 2019 Arcadia meet.

St. Francis went from 11th at the midpoint of the race at 10:24.03 to sixth (15:37:36) entering the anchor leg, then Gutierrez ran a 1:08.53 for the third-fastest lap of any of the 76 runners in the race to move the Troubies into as high as third (18:01.11). Thunder Ridge came in strong to take second overall and push St. Francis into fourth, but the overall 20:34.99 remains the best by a Sac-Joaquin Section team this season.

Earlier on Friday, the 4x800 relay of Menza, Sophia Kadel, Mia Hollar and Bianka Bagatelos ran a season-best 9:33.21 to place 17th in the Invitational field. That time surpasses the 9:39.69 from the Clarke Massey Relays, and strengthens the 2026 squad's No. 6 position in the school record book.

The Arcadia Invite, dubbed the Home of National Records, has featured more than 200 U.S. Olympians and 36 American records during its previous 57 editions. The event consists of the "Burning Batons" session on Friday, the Open session on Saturday morning and afternoon, with the marquee Invitational portion taking place on Saturday night.

Jasleen Gandhoke will represent St. Francis is three individual events on Saturday: the Open 100 hurdles (11:21 a.m.) and 300 hurdles (1:35 p.m.) then the Invitational high jump (3:30 p.m.). Randall made the evening stage in the Seeded 400 meters (6:46 p.m.), while Alyssa Gutierrez will compete in the Invitational 3,200 (8:46 p.m.). The Troubies also field a 4x400 relay on Saturday at 9:30 p.m., although the lineup for that event has not yet been declared.

2026 ARCADIA INVITATIONAL, DAY 1
Arcadia High School
Events with SF entrants only • Winner plus SF finishers listed

GIRLS' 4x800 RELAY INVITATIONAL - 1. JSerra (Hardman, Pawlowicz, Elbaz, Holley), 8:50.32... 17. St. Francis (Menza, Kadel, Hollar, Bagatelos), 9:33.21.

GIRLS' 800 SPRINT MEDLEY RELAY SEEDED - 1. Cosumnes Oaks (Ross, Youngblood, Coleman-King, Miller), 1:45.52... 3. St. Francis (Vicio, Bugarin, Gonzalez, Randall), 1:48.09.

GIRLS' 4x1600 RELAY INVITATIONAL - 1. Lone Peak (Bybee, Rohatinski, Atwater, Nilsson), 19:57.70... 4. St. Francis (Welch, Dickson, Menza, Gutierrez), 20:34.99