Jan. 26, 2013
SEATTLE - Jules Sharpe's high jump victory and Kori Carter's near-school record were among the top performances for Stanford track and field athletes Saturday at the UW Invitational.
In her first hurdles race of the season, Carter closed to within 0.02 of her indoor school record in the 60-meter event at the Dempsey Indoor track.
Carter was second in the race, but first among collegians, running 8.24 seconds. It was just off the 8.22 she ran last year.
Carter, a conference sprint hurdles champion both indoors and outdoors, was among of three Cardinal women to finish runners-up. The others were Katie Zingheim in the pole vault and Karynn Dunn in the long jump.
Sharpe won the high jump to highlight performances for the Stanford men, while clearing a season-best 7-1½.
In all, 23 women and 17 men competed for Stanford on Saturday. It was the Cardinal’s third meet of the indoor season. Including both days of the two-day competition, Stanford earned one first, three seconds, five thirds, and three fourths.
Carter and Katie Nelms, juniors and top hurdlers in school history, finished second and third in the meet behind Sasha Wallace, a senior at Castro Valley (Calif.) High School who was competing unattached. Wallace, the 2012 California Gatorade Track and Field Athlete of the Year and defending state champion in the 100 hurdles, ran the same time as Carter, but won in a photo finish. Nelms ran 8.57.
Sharpe set a season-best in the high jump with a leap of 7-1½. Sharpe had no misses through his winning jump. Colorado’s Mark Jones matched Sharpe’s height, but missed twice before he cleared it.
Geoffrey Tabor, who was undefeated after the first two meets of the season, was third in the shot put at 55-10¼. Tabor's best throw was his second of the competition.
Zingheim was second in the pole vault to her former teammate Katerina Stefanidi, the 2012 NCAA outdoor champ and Greek Olympian who is now competing professionally. Stefanidi opened at Zingheim’s top height of 12-10¾. Though Stefanidi missed on her first try, she went on to win at 13-4½.
Dunn struggled with her step last week at the Cherry & Silver Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., but had her pattern down this time, leaping 19-11½ on her sixth and final jump.
Alyssa Wisdom, the erstwhile sprinter, had only one legal throw in the shot put. On her third try, she cranked out a 50-10¾ to salvage third and overcome five fouls.
Freshman Kristyn Williams, in her first open 400 of the season, ran a Stanford season-best of 55.79 on the 307-meter flat track. It won her section of the invitational quarter and was good for third overall.
The meet included invitational sections over four distances (400, 800, mile, 3,000) among men and women. Four Stanford men and two Stanford women competed in the fastest sections of those. The highest placers among those athletes were Erik Olson and Jessica Tonn, who each captured seventh place in the men's and women's 3,000.
Olson clocked 8:07.03 and Tonn ran 9:10.16. Each was a Stanford season-best for that distance.
Stanford freshman Amy Weissenbach ran in perhaps the highest-quality event of the meet, the women’s invitational mile. Competing against a stacked field that included 2011 1,500-meter world champion Jenny Simpson, Weissenbach was unable to hold the frenetic pace and finished 10th in 4:52.79, while three broke 4:40.
In addition, Stanford women earned two other school season-bests: Cami Chapus in the 800 (2:12.08).
For the men, Luke Lefebure did the same in the 800 (1:51.34), and Loren Pilorin in the 60 (7.15).
Stanford next competes at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Friday and Saturday at The Armory in New York City.