April 18, 2009
Updated Stanford Men's Records
Updated Stanford Women's Records
Stanford, Calif. - For a third consecutive year the Stanford track and field teams swept the Big Meet. The Stanford women cruised to a 92-71 win, taking an early lead to leave no doubt who the eventual winner would be. The men's meet was much closer with Stanford winning 83-80. The meet was not clinched until the 3,000 meters, the second to last event of the meet.
The annual scored dual meet is the only meet of its kind for either Stanford or Cal. This year was the 115th running of the men's meet with Cal owning the all-time advantage, 66-47-2. The women have been competing for 30 seasons now with Stanford owning the edge, 20-10. This was also the ninth consecutive victory for the Cardinal women.
Myles Bradley highlighted the day for Stanford winning three events and breaking his own school record in the 110-meter hurdles. Bradley's time of 13.61 was also a new Big Meet record. Bradley also captured the long jump and the triple jump, achieving personal bests in both events. His marks of 24-9 ¾ in the long jump and 49-7 in the triple jump were both regional standards.
Also breaking a school record for Stanford was Amaechi Morton in the 400-meter hurdles. Morton ran a time of 50.11 to take the Big Meet title. The Stanford freshman broke the record of 50.4 set by Randy White in 1971.
Winning a pair of events for Stanford was Garrett Heath in the 800 and 1,500 meters. Heath used his strong kick to come from the pack to win both races. His time of 3:42.14 in the 1,500 meters was a regional standard, while his winning 800-meter time was 1:50.89. Jacob Evans also ran well in the 1,500 meters with a regional standard and personal best of 3:44.10.
Zach Chandy achieved a big personal best in the 200 meters with a time of 21.34 to give Stanford the lead for good. Chandy moved to tied for 10th all-time at Stanford in what turned out to be the clinching performance of the 2009 Big Meet.
Other Big Meet event winners for the men included Andrew Dargie in the 400 meters (48.34), Daniel Schaerer in the discus (195-1) and Kyle Davis-Hammerquist with a personal best in the hammer throw (203-0). The marks for Davis-Hammerquist and Schaerer were regional standards.
The women were led by Arantxa King who won both the long jump and triple jump. King achieved regional standards of 21-2 ¾ in the long jump and 42-3 ¼ in the triple jump. Both marks were collegiate bests for the Stanford sophomore and moved her to third on both the Stanford all-time long jump and triple jump lists.
Also faring well in the triple jump were Whitney Liehr and Jordan Merback. The duo tied for third with career-best marks of 41-1 ¾, which were regional standards and tied them for eighth all-time at Stanford.
Katerina <!>Stefanidi |
Katerina Stefanidi also starred for Stanford on Saturday, setting the school record in the pole vault with a mark of 13-6 ½. Stefanidi fell short of the Big Meet title in an exciting jump off with reigning NCAA champion, Katie Morgan of Cal.
The Stanford women's distance crew scored major points by sweeping all four events to help the Cardinal run away with the meet title. Early on Stanford swept the top three places in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, including regional standard marks from Emilie Amaro (10:21.81) and Madeleine O'Meara (10:46.54).
In the 1,500 meters, Alicia Follmar and Lauren Centrowitz cruised to a 1-2 finish with times of 4:24.15 and 4:24.32. Just behind them, was Madeline Duhon who placed third with a career-best and regional standard of 4:24.57.
Centrowitz used a closing burst of speed to win the 800 meters with a time of 2:09.20 in her second race of the day. Claire Cormier Thielke (2:09.58) and Kaylin Pennington (2:10.67) finished up the Stanford sweep.
Finally, in the 3,000 meters, Laurynne Chetelat led the Cardinal in 9:39.19. Georgia Griffin (9:41.21) and Kate Niehaus (9:41.41) completed the Stanford domination of the distances.
Michaela Wallerstedt led the Stanford throwers with a personal best mark of 52-4 in the shot put. It was the fifth-best throw in Stanford history and good enough for the event win. Wallerstedt also won the discus with a regional standard mark of 156-9. Also capturing Big Meet titles for the Stanford throwers were Liz Minoofar in the javelin (126-3) and Jaynie Goodbody in the hammer throw (171-2).
Stanford will be back in action next weekend with some athletes traveling to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa and some staying home to compete in the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley. The Drake relays take place on Thurs.-Sat., April 23-25, while the Brutus Hamilton is Fri.-Sat., April 24-25.