ARCADIA, Calif. – Two relay squads posted times on St. Francis' top-10 leaderboard to highlight action at the Arcadia Invitational track & field meet at Arcadia High Friday and Saturday. The foursome of Miya Menza, Sophia Kadel, Sunny Schranz and Halle Welch finished third in the girls' Seeded 4x1600 relay on Friday; then Schranz, Menza, Welch and Alexa Randall joined forces in the Invitational distance medley relay on Saturday.
The Troubadours compiled a final time of 21 minutes, 19.79 seconds in the 4x1600 for the No. 4 time in school history and the fastest by the program since the squad of Tatiana Cornejo, Hanna Hekkanen, Claire Silva and Kayla Towne went 21:08.08 at this very meet four years prior. Cornejo and Silva took part in the school-record 20:20.82 back in 2019, along with Cate Joaquin and Izzy Fauria.
Menza was the first runner to finish her leg, handing off the baton to Kadel with a split of 5:15.22. Kadel widened that lead to about nine seconds ahead of Carlmont after her first lap before Ventura's Tiffany Sax caught her at the end of the seventh. Still, St. Francis maintained the edge for second ahead of Crystal Springs and Canyon Crest Academy on the Kadel's exchange to Schranz. Troubies briefly moved into second and remained confortably in fourth when Schranz handed off to the anchor Welch, who had the fastest SF split of 1:12.16 in her lap.
Welch closed the gap on Evergreen Valley's Sivani Kaliki on the final lap, keeping the Troubies well in front of Ventura (21:33.86), and behind only runner-up EV (21:17.68) and champion CS (21:03.47).
Schranz, Menza and Welch then joined Randall in the girls' Invitational distance medley relay for a 15th-place time 12:28.41. That rates as the seventh-fastest time in SF history, just behind the 12:26.20 by Sydney Vandegridt, Sophie DeBenedetti, Chase Worthen and Ariane Arndt at the 2016 Stanford Invite. For her part, Randall enjoyed an impressive 57.98 split in her share of the DMR. For reference, she posted a personal-record 58.97 in the quarter just three days earlier at the Sierra Foothill League triple dual at Del Oro
Finally, as the medley relay competed on the track, sophomore Jasleen Gandhoke went 5-foot-4 as the lone Troubadour field event participant. She finished ninth in the meet, with seven others also going 0-for-3 at the 5-6 round. Monte Vista's Lelani Laruelle won the event, clearing 5-6 on her first attempt then 5-8 on her second before finally missing at 5-10. Gandhoke has now gone 5-4 or better four times in 2025: the Granite Bay Field Festival (Mar. 28), the Sacramento State Classic (Mar. 8) and her PR of 5-5 at the SFL center meet in Davis (Mar. 5).
St. Francis returns to action in one week, competing at Davis' Halden Invitational. Meet time is 10 a.m. at Ron & Mary Brown Stadium on April 19.
2025 ARCADIA INVITATIONAL
Arcadia High School (Arcadia, Calif.)
Events with SF entrants only • Winner plus SF finishers listed
SEEDED GIRLS' 4x1600 RELAY - 1. Crystal Springs (Avina, Cervantes, Dye, Salter), 21:03.47.. 3. St. Francis (Menza, Kadel, Schranz, Welch), 21:19.79.
INVITATIONAL GIRLS' DISTANCE MEDLEY RELAY - 1. Palo Alto (Bharadwaj, Kuzmechiva, Kiessling, Czajkowska), 11:48.54... 15. St. Francis (Schranz, Randall, Menza, Welch). 12:28.41
INVITATIONAL GIRLS' HIGH JUMP - 1. Lelani Laruelle, Monte Vista, 5-8... 9. Jasleen Gandhoke, 5-4.
