FOLSOM, Calif. – Senior Grace Dunham won the girls' 1,600-meter run with a time of five minutes, 5.13 seconds; while the foursome of Kyah Pickett, Alexa Randall, Yasmin Azar and Caitlin Hafenstein took second in the 4x400 relay with a 49.50 effort, leading St. Francis on the finals day of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I Track & Field Championships, hosted at Folsom High's Prairie City Stadium Thursday.
In all, the Troubadours boasted four "podium" finishers at the meet, and eight overall advancers to next week's SJS Masters Meet at Davis.
The UC Davis-bound Dunham beat Davis freshman Norah Feldt by a 1.66 second margin for first place and the 10 team points. This represents a reverse of the Delta League 1,600 championship in which Feldt won by more than four full seconds. Dunham finished as the runner-up at this very meet one year ago, trailing only Whitney's Katie Kopec, now a runner at Oregon State.
Dunham's win also makes her the second Troubie to win the D-I 1,600 since Isabella Fauria and Cate Joaquin finished 1-3 at the 2019 meet, although more recently, Tatiana Cornejo won the Masters crown at that distance in 2022. Note: there were no SJS championships meets in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The St. Francis 4x100 trailed only a loaded St. Mary's squad that had three of its members in the girls' 100 dash final. This represents the program's best divisional finish in the event since the 2019 championships, at which Reyna Johnson, Chanel Grimes, Serena Shimada and Isabelle Grassel edged Whitney by a margin of just 0.18 seconds.
Senior Kayla Towne, also a UC Davis commit; and freshman Jasleen Gandhoke each finished third in their respective events on Thursday. Towne ran a 2:17.88 in the 800 meters while Gandhoke tied her personal best of 5-foot-3 to take an outright third in the high jump. Gandhoke was one of five athletes to clear 5-3 but she hit her first attempt at every preceding height to win the tiebreaker and the six team points.
Gandhoke later crushed her PR in the 100 hurdles with a 15.44 and a legal wind of plus 1.8 meters per second. That surpasses the 15.97 she ran at the league meet, and moves her up to No. 7 in the school record book.
Other St. Francis scorers and Masters qualifiers included the 4x400 squad of Kennedy Bishop, Colleen Medina, Alina Gutierrez and Randall, which placed fifth at 4:08.87; Randall's sixth-place 1:00.11 in the 400 meters, and Hafenstein's 12.59 in the 100.
The SJS Masters Meet takes place at Davis Senior High's Ron & Mary Brown Stadium on May 17 and 18. The top eight finishers from the D-I meet, the top six from each of the D-II and D-III, the top five from each of the D-IV and D-V meets, plus any athlete who hits the at-large automatic standards, earns a berth in the Masters championships. From that meet, the top three finishers move on to the state championships save for the 4x800 relays, which only advance two squads.
St. Francis finished fifth in the meet with 50 points, just ahead of Lincoln (Stockton), which scored 48. Whitney won the D-I team banner with 97 points, followed by Davis (82), St. Mary's (62) and Rocklin (61).
2024 SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION DIV. I TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY 2
Prairie City Stadium (Folsom, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winners plus SF finishers listed • All events are finals
GIRLS' TEAM SCORES - 1. Whitney, 97; 2. Davis, 82; 3. St. Mary's, 62; 4. Rocklin, 61; 5. St. Francis, 50; 6. Lincoln, 48; 7. Pleasant Grove, 39; 8. Granite Bay, 38.5; 9. Cosumnes Oaks, 33; 10. Oak Ridge, 24; 11. Franklin, 23; 12. Sheldon, 21; 13. Folsom, 20; 14. Lodi, 18.5; 15. Merrill West, 17; 16 (tied) Del Oro; Tracy, 12; 18. Tokay 5.
GIRLS' HIGH JUMP - 1. Fekei George, St. Mary's, 5-6... 3. Jasleen Gandhoke, 5-3.
GIRLS' 4x100 RELAY - 1. St. Mary's, 48.72... 2. St. Francis (Pickett, Randall, Azar, Hafenstein), 49.50.
GIRLS' 1,600 METERS - 1. Grace Dunham, St. Francis, 5:05.13.
GIRLS' 100 HURDLES (w: +1.8) 1. Giselle Kirchner, Rocklin, 14.12... 5. Jasleen Gandhoke, 15.44.
GIRLS' SHOT PUT - 1. Ronan Gallagher, Folsom, 37-10... 10. Elise Blomquist, 32-8.5.
GIRLS' 400 METERS - 1. Ihe Okoh, Franklin, 56.83... 6. Alexa Randall, 1:00.11.
GIRLS' 100 METERS (w: +2.8) - 1. Tamea Crear, St. Mary's, 11.88... 6. Caitlin Hafenstein, 12.59.
GIRLS' 800 METERS - 1. Ava Kopec, Whitney, 2:16.90... 3. Kayla Towne, 2:17.88.
GIRLS' 3,200 METERS - 1. Karissa Chamberlain, Whitney, 11:04.50... 10. Sunny Schranz, 11:39.45; 15. Ryann Strawn, 12:00.36.
GIRLS' 4x400 RELAY - 1. Franklin, 4:00.32... 5. St. Francis (Bishop, Medina, Gutierrez, Randall), 4:08.87.
GIRLS' LONG JUMP - 1. Tatiana Youngblood, Cosumnes Oaks, 18-9.75... 18. Tayli Paeu-Lindgren, 15-10.75. Wind readings not available.
