FRESNO, Calif. – The St. Francis 4x800 relay foursome of Grace Dunham, Ryann Strawn, Kelsey Sutch and Kayla Towne finished 12th at the 104th CIF Track & Field Championships, held at Buchanan High School Saturday. The Troubadour crew compiled a time of nine minutes, 20.33 seconds.
That time eclipsed the previous school record of 9:21.36, set by the same quartet at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet in Davis just eight days earlier. The Masters time had beaten last year's best of 9:26.91, set by Dunham, Sutch, Towne and Daphne Witherell at both the SJS Division I championship and SJS Masters.
Dunham led off the race with a 2:20.50 split, Strawn followed with a 2:21.65, Sutch with a 2:21.34, then Towne anchored the Troubies with a 2:16.77. Sutch also had the fastest lap of the eight, running a 1:05.47 for her first half of her leg.
The relay follows a solo appearance for Dunham in Friday's portion of the meet. She placed 24th in the 1,600-meter run prelim with a 5:02.69 effort, her No. 2 time of the season.
The state track & field meet is the final St. Francis athletics event of the year, but not the final race for three of the four members of the 4x800 relay: Dunham and Towne will compete for UC Davis starting with this fall's cross country season, while Strawn signed this spring with UC Santa Barbara for both cross and track. Freshman Sunny Schranz also made the trip as an alternate.
2024 CIF TRACK & FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS, DAY 2
Buchanan High School (Fresno, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winners plus SF finishers listed
GIRLS' 4x800 RELAY FINAL - 1. Ventura (True, Sax, Curtis, Engelhardt), 8:57.21... 12. St. Francis (Dunham, Strawn, Sutch, Towne), 9:20.33.
