FRESNO, Calif. – Freshman Halle Welch placed 41st overall and tops among her Troubadour teammates to lead St. Francis to a seventh-place total of 245 points in the girls' Division III 5-kilometer race at the CIF Cross Country Championships, held in Woodward Park Saturday.

Welch crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, 48.3 seconds. Freshman Sophia Kadel followed in 56th at 19:01.4, with sophomore Sunny Schranz (19:11.8) and freshman Miya Menza (19:13.6) coming through back-to-back in 67th and 68th places. Senior Kyra Lueras rounded out the scoring in 124th place (20:13.3), with fellow 12th graders Mykaela Le and Lucie Pickering Pick displacing in 132nd (20:19.2) and 140th (20:33.2), respectively.

The 2024 meet marked the first state championship appearance for all SF runners except for Schranz, who placed 85th as a freshman exactly one year ago. Schranz slashed more than 47 seconds from the 19:49.4 she ran in the 2023 championships. Also, this was the first-ever run at the Woodward Park course for Lueras, who did not join the Troubies during four previous visits to the Clovis Invitational, held on the same venue as the state championship.

Additionally, Welch improved by more than a minute from her Clovis Invite time of 19:58.8 on October 11. Kadel and Menza each ran 35 seconds faster than their previous visit, while Schranz cut her time by almost 23 seconds from seven weeks prior. Le and Pickering Pick last came to Woodward Park as juniors, resulting in more drastic improvements: Le went 24:39.9 at the course 13 months prior, Pickering Pick finished in 24:14.6 as part of the same combined junor varsity 5K race.

St. Francis held ninth place at the one-mile mark, with Welch in 36th among the 214 entrants with a 5:40.4 split. Menza (52nd) and Kadel (62nd) were the Troubies No. 2 and 3 runners at that point, although those two switched places in the St. Francis order by their return to the same spot. However, Schranz had jockeyed her way from 97th place during the first pass through the marker to 71st with a mile remaining, helping the Troubies move ahead of Yorba Linda into eighth place.

In the final mile, Lueras and Pickering Pick gained six and 11 places, Schranz moved up four spots ahead of Menza, with Kadel holding off a strong finish by Point Loma's Sara Geiszler, giving the Troubies one more rung on the team leaderboard.

This is the second consecutive year that the Sac-Joaquin Section-champion Troubadours placed seventh at the state championship, and the 17th top-10 finish for the program all-time.

2024 CIF CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Woodward Park (Fresno, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winner plus SF finishers listed

DIVISION III GIRLS' TEAM SCORES - 1. South Pasadena, 106; 2. Point Loma, 149; 3. Santa Margarita, 163; 4. Cathedral Catholic, 165; 5. Oak Park, 207; 6. Campolindo, 213; 7. St. Francis, 245; 8. Yorba Linda, 263; 9. Sacred Heart Cathedral, 280; 10. West Torrance, 283; 11. Montgomery, 314; 12. Sage Creek, 327; 13. Northgate, 343; 14. Hart, 349; 15. River Valley, 378; 16. Canyon, 417; 17. Newark Memorial, 402; 18. San Luis Obispo, 406; 19. St. Ignatius, 417; 20. Del Oro, 458; 21. Chico, 483; 22. La Costa Canyon, 487; 23. Atascadero, 583; 24. Lowell, 711; 25. Verdugo Hills, 791.

DIVISION III GIRLS' INDIVIDUALS - 1. Abigail Errington, South Pasadena, 16:57.3... 41. Halle Welch, 18:48.3; 56. Sophia Kadel, 19:01.4; 67. Sunny Schranz, 19:11.8; 68. Miya Menza, 19:13.6; 124. Kyra Lueras, 20:13.3; 132. Mykaela Le, 20:19.2; 140. Lucie Pickering Pick, 20:33.2.