STANFORD, Calif. – More than 3,300 athletes, including entrants from 114 four-year college programs, will converge on Cobb Track and Angell Field on Friday and Saturday for the 39th Stanford Track and Field Invitational.
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Meet information:
When: Friday and Saturday
What: Stanford Invitational
Where: Stanford, Calif.
Site: Cobb Track and Angell Field
Events begin:
Friday: Field, 9 a.m.; Running, 10:40 a.m.
Saturday: Field, 9 a.m.; Running, 10 a.m.
Follow the action:
Live results: Click here
Event schedule: Click here
Flotrack premium webcast: Click here
Tickets: For adults, tickets are $15 for both days or $10 each day. For youths, seniors, and staff, tickets are $5 each day. The ticket booth outside the entrance to the track stadium opens at 8:30 a.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. on Saturday.
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Stanford schedule and athletes:
Friday
9 a.m. (coll.), Men’s javelin: Andrew Rondema.
10:42 a.m., Men's 5,000: Section 4 - Kevin Bishop.
11 a.m. (invite), Women’s pole vault: Ellie McCardwell.
11 a.m. (invite), Women’s shot put: Alyssa Wisdom.
11 a.m. (invite), Women’s javelin: Brianna Bain, Megan Glasmann.
12:42 p.m. (open), Women's 1,500: Section 8 - Jackie Choucair, Sophia Ginez; Section 7 - Aimee Trujillo; Section 6 - Alli Billmeyer; Section 4 - Danielle Katz.
1:10 p.m. (open), Men's 1,500: Section 7 - Will Drinkwater, Kenny Krotzer; Section 5 - Adam Thorne; Section 4 - Luke Lefebure.
2:30 p.m. (invite), Men’s pole vault: Dylan Duvio.
2:34 p.m., Women’s 400 hurdles: Malika Waschmann.
4 p.m. (invite), Men's discus: Nick Budincich
4:12 p.m., Women’s 400: Kristyn Williams.
5 p.m., Women’s 3,000 steeplechase: Section 3 - Danielle Katz, Tate Murray.
5:45 p.m., Men’s 3,000 steeplechase: Section 3 - Adam Thorne.
6:15 p.m. (coll.), Men’s discus: Lucas Rowley.
6:25 p.m. (invite), Women's 1,500: Section 3 - Molly McNamara, Tate Murray, Claudia Saunders.
6:39 p.m. (invite), Women's 1,500: Section 1 - Aisling Cuffe, Jessica Tonn, Amy Weissenbach.
6:46 p.m. (invite), Men's 1,500: Section 3 - Scott Buttinger.
6:52 p.m. (invite), Men's 1,500: Section 2 - Justin Brinkley, Erik Olson, Joe Rosa.
6:58 p.m. (invite), Men's 1,500: Section 1 - Marco Bertolotti, Tyler Stutzman.
7:07 p.m., Women’s 5,000: Section 3 - Cami Chapus, Emma Fisher, Vanessa Fraser, Rebecca Mehra.
8:05 p.m., Men’s 5,000: Section 2 - Michael Atchoo.
10 p.m., Women’s 10,000: Section 2 - Megan Lacy.
10:38 p.m., Men’s 10,000: Section 2 - Jack Bordoni, Thomas Graham.
Saturday
10 a.m. (coll.), Women’s hammer: Valarie Allman, Rebecca Hammar.
1 p.m. (invite), Men’s hammer: Lucas Rowley.
2:26 p.m., Women’s 800: Hannah Brown, Sophia Ginez, Molly McNamara.
2:49 p.m., Men’s 800: Marco Bertolotti, Justin Brinkley, Will Drinkwater, Tyler Stutzman.
3 p.m. (coll.), Men’s shot put: Nick Budincich.
3 p.m. (invite), Women's discus: Valarie Allman, Rebecca Hammar.
4 p.m. (invite), Men’s triple jump: Darian Brooks.
4:59 p.m., Women’s 4x400 relay: Stanford 'A,' Stanford 'B.'
5:15 p.m., Men’s 4x400 relay: Stanford 'A,' Stanford 'B.'
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The Stanford Invitational begins the outdoor season in earnest for Stanford, which will use its full squad for the first time after only selected field event athletes competed in two Northern California outdoor meets.
Fourteen of Stanford’s 16 All-Americans will compete, including two-time first-team All-America Brianna Bain in the javelin. Bain, a junior who was No. 5 in the 2013 Track & Field News U.S. rankings, will make her season debut.
Amy Weissenbach, Stanford’s other returning first-team outdoor All-American, will run the 1,500 meters rather than her specialty, the 800, and the 4x400 relay. Weissenbach, No. 10 in Track & Field News’ U.S. rankings, advanced to the USATF 800 final and set a national freshman record of 2:00.98 last year.
Stanford men’s All-Americans competing are Michael Atchoo (5,000), Marco Bertolotti (800, 1,500), Luke Lefebure (1,500), Erik Olson (1,500), Jim Rosa (1,500, 10,000), Joe Rosa (1,500), and Tyler Stutzman (800, 1,500).
Cardinal women’s All-Americans competing are Bain, Weissenbach, Aisling Cuffe (1,500), Claudia Saunders (1,500, 4x400), Jessica Tonn (1,500), Alyssa Wisdom (shot put), and Kristyn Williams (400, 4x400).
Cardinal All-America Steven Solomon is running the 400 at the Australian national championships in Melbourne this weekend. Solomon is competing for a spot on his country’s Commonwealth Games team.
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Home debuts: This meet marks the first home track and field appearance in a Stanford uniform for these freshmen or sophomores: Valarie Allman (women’s discus), Kevin Bishop (men’s 5,000), Jack Bordoni (men’s 10,000), Hannah Brown (women’s 800), Scott Buttinger (men’s 1,500), Jackie Choucair (women’s 1,500), Dylan Duvio (men’s pole vault), Emma Fisher (women’s 5,000), Vanessa Fraser (women's 5,000), Megan Glasmann (women’s javelin), Thomas Graham (men’s 10,000), Danielle Katz (women’s 1,500, 3,000 steeplechase), Garrett Sweatt (1,500, 10,000), Adam Thorne (1,500, 3,000 steeplechase), and Malika Waschmann (400 hurdles).
Allman has the No. 2 collegiate discus throw in the country and holds the Stanford freshman record with a best of 187-7, from her collegiate debut on March 8 at the Cal Outdoor Opener in Berkeley.
Glasmann already stands No. 4 on Stanford’s all-time javelin list after winning the Hornet Invitational in her collegiate debut on March 15, with a toss of 159-10. Only Bain has thrown farther among Stanford freshmen.
Duvio reached 17-5 ¾ during the indoor season and is No. 3 indoors and No. 4 outdoors in Stanford history.
Buttinger represented Canada at the Pan Am Junior Championships in Colombia in August. His 800 best of 1:49.38 is No. 5 on Stanford’s indoor list. He was an alternate on Stanford’s NCAA indoor champion distance medley relay team.
Buttinger is the only one of Stanford’s vaunted men’s freshmen distance class competing for Stanford this year. Sean McGorty, Jack Keelan, and Sam Wharton finished 1-2-3 at the U.S. junior cross country championships in February. All are redshirting, but will compete unattached this weekend: McGorty and Keelan in the 1,500 and Wharton in the 5,000.
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Top athletes in the field include Kori Carter, who set a collegiate record (53.21) in the women’s 400 hurdles at the NCAA Championships last spring as a Stanford junior. Carter, who gave up her senior season to turn pro, makes her 2014 outdoor debut on Friday (2:46 p.m.), running in her specialty. She was ranked No. 7 in the world by Track & Field News in 2013.
Oregon freshman Edward Cheserek, the hottest collegiate distance runner in the nation, is scheduled to run the 10,000 on Friday at 9:36 p.m. Cheserek came from behind to win the NCAA cross country title in muddy conditions in frigid Terre Haute, Ind., last fall, and swept the 3,000 and 5,000 at the recent NCAA Indoor Championships.
Texas A&M brings the full force of its sprints and hurdles brigade. That group includes defending NCAA men’s outdoor 110 high hurdles champion Wayne Davis II, who will run his specialty. The prelims are Friday at 12:10 p.m. and the final is Saturday at 4:35 p.m.
Also expected to compete for the Aggies are Deon Lendore, the 2013 NCAA runner-up in the 400. Lendore, a 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the 4x400 from Trinidad & Tobago, is scheduled to run both the 200 (Saturday, 3:28 p.m.) and 400 (Friday, 4:39 p.m.). Two members of Texas A&M’s women’s 2013 NCAA champion 4x100 team – Bay Area native Ashton Purvis and NCAA outdoor 200 runner-up Kamaria Brown -- will run as well. Both will run the 100 (final, Friday, 4:54 p.m.).
Other top athletes include Air Force’s Zach Perkins, an Alameda native and the 2013 NCAA 1,500 runner-up, who will run that event (Friday, 6:58 p.m.). And Boise State’s Emma Bates, the 2013 NCAA cross country runner-up. She will run the 10,000 (Friday, 8:58 p.m.).
The meet also marks the professional debut of Stanford women's 800 record-holder Justine Fedronic, who anchored the Cardinal to second at the recent NCAA Indoor Championships in the distance medley relay. Fedronic will run the invitational 1,500 (Friday, 6:39 p.m.). She recently signed with a French club, EFCVO, and will represent France in international competition.
Maggie Vessey, a native of Soquel and a former World Championships qualifier, will run the 800 (Saturday, 2:34 p.m.). She is coached by former Stanford All-America Greg Brock.
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The Stanford Invitational has been held continuously since 1985, but has its roots as far back as 1975 when Stanford first began holding a large late-March meet, with the Stanford Relays.
Coach Brooks Johnson transformed it into the high-profile Martin Luther King Games from 1980-83 at Stanford Stadium. There was no meet in 1984, but it started up the following year and has taken different forms, such as the Stanford Track and Field Festival and the Diet Pepsi Track Challenge. It has been called the Stanford Invitational since 1995.
The meet is in its 39th year, and 30th consecutive. Here is how the Stanford Invitational evolved over the years:
1975-76: Stanford Relays
1977-79: Stanford Invitational Relays
1980-83: Martin Luther King Games
1985-86: Stanford Invitational
1987-90: Holiday Inn/Stanford Track Festival
1991: Diet Pepsi Track Challenge
1992-94: Stanford Track and Field Festival
1995-2014: Stanford Invitational