STANFORD, Calif. – The Big Meet, one of the country’s great track and field traditions, continues on Saturday with the 121st track and field duel between Stanford and California. The meet will be held at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field, beginning with the women's hammer throw at 2 p.m. The women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase opens the running events, at 3:15 p.m. This is the only dual meet on the schedule for either team, and extends a tradition that began in 1893. Cal leads the men's series, 68-50-2. For the women, Stanford leads the series, 23-12.
CARDINALPALOOZA: The Big Meet is one of seven Stanford home athletic events Saturday, all of them free, including the Cardinal and White spring football game (1 p.m.) at Stanford Stadium. For information on events, parking, and concessions, click here.
MEET INFORMATION:
When: Saturday
What: 121st Big Meet between Stanford and California
Where: Stanford, Calif.
Site: Cobb Track and Angell Field
Events begin: Field, 2 p.m.; Running, 3:15 p.m.
Admission: Free
Follow the action:
Live results: Click here
Heat sheets: Click here
THE DUAL MEET: Dual meets, once a staple of the collegiate season, are nearly nonexistent. However, the Big Meet remains one of the sport’s great traditions, having begun in 1893 and taking place annually with the exception of the World War II years. The difficulty is creating a dual-meet team from one essentially built for national championship meets. Cal swept both results last season by large margins. Stanford seeks to break Cal’s two-year men’s winning streak and return to dominance in the women’s competition, having won 12 of the past 14 years. The last time Stanford had a scoring dual meet against a team other than Cal was May 4, 1991, when the Cardinal men took on Oregon in Eugene. Only 20 Stanford athletes made the trip for the resulting 115-41 loss. The rout and the lack of interest on Stanford’s behalf may have hastened the demise of the dual on The Farm.
FROSH SHOWDOWN: The matchup of the day could be the women’s 1,500 between two freshmen, Elise Cranny of Stanford and Bethan Knights of Cal. This will be Cranny’s home track debut (she also is running the 800) after a strong indoor season in which she finished second in the 3,000 at the NCAA Championships, setting an American junior record of 8:58.88. Knights broke the national high school record in the two mile (9:53.54) last year and captured the California state title for 3,200. At the Pac-12 cross country championships last fall, Cranny was second and Knights third, behind winner Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State.
TRIUMPHANT RETURN: After a sterling cross country season that extended all the way to March 28, Maksim Korolev opens his track season on Saturday by venturing into a star-studded 3,000 that also includes five members of Stanford’s NCAA runner-up cross country lineup, plus the Cardinal’s four-time All-America Erik Olson. Cal counters with All-America Thomas Joyce, who also runs his speciality, the 1,500 (PR 3:41.08). Korolev, a graduate transfer from Harvard, was fourth in NCAA cross country and sixth at the U.S. Championships, earning him inclusion on the U.S. national team. He went on to win the Pan Am Cup in Colombia, emblematic as the champion of the Western Hemisphere, on Feb. 22. He then placed 57th at the World Cross Country Championships in Guiyang, China. Korolev already had exhausted his indoor eligibility at Harvard, but has a single season left outdoors.
POTENTIAL: Olivia Baker is a freshman with great credentials in the 400. After all, she was the bronze medalist at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene last summer, and won gold for the U.S. in the 4x400 relay. However, her future could lie in the 800, an event she will run for the first time as a collegian, on Saturday. The 800 field includes teammates Claudia Saunders, the 2014 NCAA outdoor runner-up, up-and-comer Malika Waschmann, a sophomore in her first year specializing in the event, plus Australian junior star Anna Laman and fellow freshman Cranny. The Baker-Cranny-Saunders combination – a rare confluence of such high-caliber talent from disparate specialties -- could make this race unforgettable. Baker has an 800 high school best of 2:06.01 and ran a spectacular 2:02.55 4x800 anchor split at the Penn Relays last year, making up a 50-meter deficit to win.
DEBUT: Freshman decathlete Harrison Williams makes home debut, competing in the high jump, 110-meter high hurdles, and the 400. In March, Williams was the top collegiate decathlete at the Texas Relays, finishing second overall with 7,518 points and earning likely passage to the NCAA Championships.
DOUBLE BILLING: Triple jumper Darian Brooks opens an outdoor season in which he will seek to defend his Pac-12 title. A two-time All-America, Brooks last year broke a school outdoor record that had stood since 1970, and did it on his final attempt to rally to victory at the conference meet. An intriguing opponent will be Jaak Uudmae is a native of Estonia and a Stanford sophomore who is the son of the USSR’s 1980 Olympic triple jump champion of the same name. Uudmae, who redshirted last year, has improved steadily in the long jump, setting a personal record by seven inches at the Stanford Invitational last week with a leap of 23-11 ½. The triple jump, however, is Uudmae’s specialty and this will be his collegiate debut in that event, as well as the high jump.
ON POINT: Three-time Pac-12 women’s javelin champion Brianna Bain has made a habit of excelling at the Big Meet. She has won the competition all three seasons and set school and personal records of 183-10 while winning at the 2013 Big Meet at Cobb Track and Angell Field.
FIRST-TIMERS: The competition for points leads to some unusual circumstances. For Stanford’s men, all three steeplechasers – Patrick Gibson, Ryan Silva, and Garrett Sweatt -- are first-timers. Gibson and Sweatt established personal records at the Stanford Invitational last week. Gibson ducked under 14 minutes in the 5,000, running 13:58.96. Stanford now has eight runners who have run sub-14. Sweatt won Section II of the 10,000 in 28:51.56, blazing to the victory with a 61-second final lap. It was a PR by 2 ½ minutes. Sweatt doubles in the 3,000.
ALL-AMERICANS: Stanford All-Americans competing Saturday are ...
Men
Darian Brooks: triple jump
Thomas Coyle: 800, 1,500
Dylan Duvio: pole vault
Maksim Korolev: 3,000
Luke Lefebure: 800
Sean McGorty: 1,500, 3,000
Erik Olson: 1,500, 3,000
Jackson Shumway: 400
Sam Wharton: 3,000
Dartis Willis II: long jump, high jump
Women
Valarie Allman: discus, hammer
Brianna Bain, javelin
Olivia Baker: 800
Elise Cranny: 800, 1,500
Rebecca Mehra: 1,500
Claudia Saunders: 800
Jessica Tonn: 1,500, 3,000
Kristyn Williams: 200, 400
Meet schedule
Field events:
2 p.m.: Women’s Hammer, followed by the Men’s Hammer
3 p.m.: Women's Long Jump, followed by the Men's Long Jump
3:30 p.m.: Women's Javelin, followed by the Men's Javelin
3:30 p.m.: Women's Pole Vault, followed by the Men’s Pole Vault
3:30 p.m.: Women’s Shot, followed by the Men's Shot
3:30 p.m.: Women's High Jump, followed by the Men’s High Jump
4:30 p.m.: Women’s Triple Jump, followed by Men’s Triple Jump
4:30 p.m.: Women’s Discus, followed by the Men's Discus
Running events:
3:15 p.m.: Women's 3,000 Steeplechase
3:30 p.m.: Men's 3,000 Steeplechase
3:45 p.m.: Women's 4 x 100 Relay
3:50 p.m.: Men's 4 x 100 Relay
3:55 p.m.: Women's 1,500
4 p.m.: Men's 1,500
4:15 p.m.: Women's 100 Hurdles
4:20 p.m.: Men's 110 Hurdles
4:25 p.m.: Women's 400
4:30 p.m.: Men's 400
4:35 p.m.: Women's 100
4:40 p.m.: Men's 100
4:50 p.m.: Women's 800
4:55 p.m.: Men's 800
5:05 p.m.: Women's 400 Hurdles
5:10 p.m.: Men's 400 Hurdles
5:15 p.m.: Women's 200
5:20 p.m.: Men's 200
5:25 p.m.: Women's 3,000
5:40 p.m.: Men's 3000
5:45 p.m.: Pitch Johnson recognition
5:55 p.m.: Women's 4 x 400 Relay
6:05 p.m.: Men's 4 x 400 Relay
THE FIRST: This is the 121st Big Meet, but it's been 122 years since the first. The men's only meet (the schools wouldn't hold their first women's matchup until 1980) took place on April 22, 1893 at the Olympic Club Grounds in San Francisco. Cal won 10 of the 14 events, sweeping five of them, while earning a 91-35 victory. Stanford had no coach and swept only one event - the two-mile bicycle race. Though the meet was held annually, Stanford didn't win until the 11th edition, in 1903.