DARIAN BROOKS was part cheerleader, part competitor as the curtain was raised on Stanford’s indoor track and field season last week in Seattle.
Between attempts in the triple jump at the UW Indoor Preview, Brooks ran back and forth to cheer on teammates who also were having big days, and they did the same, feeding off each other’s energy and enthusiasm. By the time it was over, Brooks set a school record and Jaak Uudmae was right behind with a personal best, Cardinal men’s pole vaulters swept the first three places, and high jumper Dartis Willis had his best jump in four years as the top collegiate finisher.
For the first time in years, Stanford enters a men’s season with the opportunity to do some damage at the national championships in the field events. The Stanford men haven’t had a field-event scorer at NCAA Indoors since 2008, when Josh Hustedt was runner-up in the heptathlon and Graeme Hoste was fourth in the pole vault.
If Stanford can assemble a “normal” output -- by its high standards -- of NCAA qualifiers in the distance events, field-event success could give the Cardinal its first top-10 national finish in five years.
“We’re putting together the most complete men’s team we’ve had in a long time,” said Chris Miltenberg, Stanford’s fourth-year Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field.
It’s quite possible that Stanford could earn twin top-10 finishes for the first time since 2008. That’s the level of optimism surrounding the Cardinal men and women as they head into the heart of the indoor schedule.
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Stanford Indoor facts:
2016 USTFCCCA Rankings: Men, 13th; Women, 13th.
2015 NCAA team finish: Women, 8th; Men, did not score.
Highest NCAA team finish: Men, 2nd (1998-2000); Women, 2nd (1992, 2006).
2015 MPSF team finish: Women, 5th; Men, 6th.
Most recent MPSF team championships: Women, 2012; Men, 2011.
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Key meets:
Jan. 29-30: Penn State National (great opportunity to qualify for NCAA’s)
Feb. 12-13: Iowa State Classic, in Ames, Iowa (strong distance fields)
Feb. 12-13: Don Kirby Elite Invitational, in Albuquerque, N.M. (jumpers can soar at altitude)
Feb. 26-27: MPSF Championships, in Seattle (Last chance for NCAA qualifying)
March 11-12: NCAA Championships, in Birmingham, Ala.
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Top returners:
Men:
NCAA scorers (indoors or outdoors, with placing in events that approximate those indoors):
Dylan Duvio, jr. (3rd, 2015 outdoor pole vault).
Sean McGorty, jr. (8th, 2015 outdoor 5,000; All-America indoor distance medley relay).
Jim Rosa, 5th sr. (7th, 2014 outdoor 10,000; All-America cross country).
Joe Rosa, 5th sr. (5th, 2014 indoor 5,000; 7th, 2014 outdoor 5,000; All-America cross country).
Harrison Williams, so. (4th, 2015 outdoor decathlon)
Other All-Americans:
Darian Brooks, 5th sr. (indoor and outdoor triple jump).
Tom Coyle, jr. (indoor DMR).
Grant Fisher, fr. (cross country).
Collin Leibold, gr. (outdoor 5,000).
Jackson Shumway, sr. (indoor DMR).
Sam Wharton, jr. (cross country).
Dartis Willis II, 5th sr. (outdoor high jump).
Women:
NCAA scorers:
Olivia Baker, so. (2nd, 2015 indoor DMR; All-America outdoor 800, 4x400).
Elise Cranny, so. (2nd, 2015 indoor 3,000; 2nd, 2015 indoor DMR; All-America cross country, outdoor 1,500).
Aisling Cuffe, 5th sr. (2nd, 2014 outdoor 5,000; 2nd 2014 indoor 5,000; 7th, 2014 indoor 3,000; All-America indoor DMR).
Claudia Saunders, sr. (2nd, 2015 outdoor 800; 2nd 2014 outdoor 800; 2nd, 2015 indoor DMR; 2nd 2014).
Kristyn Williams, sr. (2nd, 2014 indoor DMR; All-America outdoor 4x400, indoor DMR).
Other All-Americans:
Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, so. (outdoor 4x400).
Vanessa Fraser, jr. (cross country, outdoor 5,000).
Rebecca Mehra, sr. (outdoor 1,500).
Gaby Gayles, so. (outdoor 4x400).
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Event breakdown:
Distance medley relay:
THIS IS STANFORD’S signature indoor event (legs of 1,200, 400, 800, and 1,600 meters). Stanford has won five NCAA DMR titles, four for the men and one for the women. The Cardinal also has 19 top-five finishes, 10 for the men and nine for the women. In no other event has Stanford won more NCAA indoor titles or had as much overall success. The Stanford men have qualified DMR teams to NCAA’s the past six years, and the women four.
The Stanford men are two years removed from an NCAA title. However, none of the four remain from that team. Last year, Stanford seemed in good shape before Tom Coyle suffered a fall on the opening leg and the Cardinal was unable to recover. Sean McGorty will run anchor and could be in line for a DMR/3,000 double at NCAA’s. Jackson Shumway should run the 400 leg. Though Scott Buttinger seems likely for the 800 and sub-4 miler Coyle for the 1,200, Justin Brinkley and Patrick Perrier could have says in the matter.
The Stanford women were second at NCAA’s the past two years. In each case, the Cardinal was overtaken on the anchor leg by Arkansas' Dominique Scott. Stanford has five – Olivia Baker, Elise Cranny, Aisling Cuffe, Claudia Saunders, and Kristyn Williams – who have run the DMR at NCAA’s, including four who have been part of at least one of those second-place teams. In fact, Saunders could run in her fourth NCAA DMR.
The challenge will be satisfying the desire for possible points that could come from Saunders or Baker in an individual event. It would be difficult to run an 800 heat – Saunders and Baker are each outdoor All-Americans in that event -- before running a DMR. Cuffe is doubtful for the DMR pool as she continues to build back up after an injury, and Miltenberg must be cautious with Cranny after she missed cross country season with an injury. That could create spots for the likes of distance All-America Vanessa Fraser or half-miler Malika Waschmann.
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Distances:
MILTENBERG HAS YET to decide whether freshman phenom Grant Fisher will redshirt. That decision should come at the end of January, Miltenberg said, and will take into account Fisher’s overall schedule, which may include participation at the Olympic trials or World Junior Championships during the summer. Freshmen Will Lauer and Alex Ostberg are definite redshirts.
McGorty, twins Jim and Joe Rosa, and graduate transfer Collin Leibold, seem to have the best chance at individual honors among the distance crew. McGorty, who has great versatility from the mile to the 10K, will settle on the 3,000 at NCAA’s because it doesn’t require a Friday prelim like the mile and works best with a DMR schedule.
Jim Rosa rebounded from a lost 2014-15 season to place sixth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships – his second top-6 finish. Joe Rosa was fifth in the 5,000 at the 2014 NCAA Indoors and sixth outdoors the same year. Both seem to be in good fitness.
“They’re doing great right now,” Miltenberg said.
Neither Rosa will race until the Iowa State Classic 5,000 in mid-February. They will be joined in that race by Leibold, who made his Stanford track debut with a personal-best 4:02.65 mile in Seattle last week. Leibold, an outdoor All-America in the 5,000 at Georgetown, will run the 3,000 at Penn State National and at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships. The hope is that he will qualify in either the 3,000 or 5,000, with Garrett Sweatt taking a shot at the longer event as well.
The Cardinal women have a confluence of two great runners, sophomore Cranny and fifth-year senior Cuffe. Cranny is back training at full strength while Cuffe is running, but still early in her base-building. Cranny was spectacular at the 2015 NCAA Indoors, setting a American junior indoor 3,000 record of 8:58.88 while finishing second.
Cranny won’t return to action until Iowa State at the earliest, Miltenberg said, and her season debut could wait until the MPSF Championships. Cuffe is in a similar position in that she’ll run a qualifier and then NCAA’s in a single event. Her first race likely won’t be until MPSF’s.
Saunders, a senior, and Baker, a sophomore, never have run an individual event at NCAA Indoors. With an outdoor school-record of 2:00.63, Saunders is an obvious national contender in the 800, though she still has never won a conference individual title, indoors or outdoors, despite being a two-time NCAA outdoor runner-up. This year, her conference title push indoors could be in the mile.
A 2014 World Junior gold medalist in the 4x400, Baker is a rising star in the 800. The question is whether that next jump in her development will take place this winter or later.
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Jumps:
TWO YEARS AGO, Michael Eskind brought three athletes from his jumps/pole vault/multi-events stable to the season-opening UW Preview meet. This year, he brought 14, showing the expanding depth and talent in those events. Of those, he seems certain to have three NCAA qualifiers – Harrison Williams, Darian Brooks, and Dylan Duvio -- with the possibility of others as well.
Williams broke the U.S. junior decathlon record last year (for 19 and under) and won his second U.S. junior title. He’s on the verge of qualifying for the Olympic trials and an expansion of his own school record of 7,806 points is likely to achieve the qualifying standard of 7,900.
What does that mean for Williams indoors? He’ll attempt to qualify for the NCAA heptathlon, which is the seven-event multi-event indoor championship, at the Penn State National meet next week. If his score is good enough, he can bypass the MPSF heptathlon while competing in individual events such as the pole vault (he cleared a personal best 17-3 on Saturday), long jump, and 60 hurdles.
Brooks, the defending MPSF triple jump champion, likely has already qualified for NCAA’s because of his 52-9 ¼ effort in his hometown of Seattle last week – a distance that eclipsed his own school records indoors or outdoors. The NCAA Indoors has no qualifying standards, rather it takes the top 16 at the end of the season. The average NCAA cutoff over the past three years has been 52-1 ¼. Uudmae, the Estonian who jumped his best of 51-5 ¾ last week, will likely need another 8 ½ inches to advance.
In the pole vault, that average cutoff has been 17-9 ¾, well within the realm of Duvio, who was third at the NCAA Outdoors last year with a personal best 18-2 ½. Garrett Starkey, a senior, equaled his all-time best of 17-3 last week and could close in on his first NCAA appearance, perhaps in Albuquerque at February’s Don Kirby Elite.
In the high jump, fifth-year senior Willis is jumping off fresh legs and it showed with a 7-0 ½ clearance in Seattle, his best jump since his freshman year. He also could make an impact nationally, and needs about 2- 2½ more inches to secure an NCAA spot.
The Cardinal strengthened itself especially in the women’s pole vault with three top recruits: two-time California state champion Kaitlyn Merritt , Maryland’s High School Track and Field Athlete of the Year Jackie McNulty, and Texas standout Nicole Summersett, third at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals last year and is redshirting.
This goes in line with other young talented jumpers, including sophomore triple jumper Marisa Kwiatkowski, who improved upon her Philippines national indoor record last week, with a jump of 40-7.
Freshman Brittany McGee had strong potential in the multi-events and will compete in the five-event pentathlon at Penn State.
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Sprints:
NEW SPRINTS AND HURDLES coach Gabe Sanders is building a strong group of sprinters and the women’s 4x400 team could follow-up its NCAA outdoor appearance of last year with an indoor qualifying mark as well.
The Cardinal team of Gaby Gayles, Kristyn Williams, Kaitlyn Williams, and Olivia Baker won the event at the UW Indoor Preview in a meet record 3:40.38. Last year, the quartet of Kristyn Williams, Baker, Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, and Gayles was a surprise and dramatic winner at Arkansas’ Razorback Invitational, in 3:36.81, and all are back. Stanford probably has six strong relay candidates with Saunders, who has a 54.0 relay split in her holster, added to the mix.
For the men, Shumway opened the indoor season with a 47.71 in the 400, tying his outdoor personal best and signifying a promising outdoor season in his main event, the 400 hurdles.
Isaiah Brandt-Sims, a football wide receiver who competed strictly outdoors as a freshman, may compete indoors this season. Sanders wants to make sure he’s ready after joining the team only after Stanford’s 45-16 Rose Bowl victory over Iowa on New Year’s Day, but is encouraged about the possibilities indoors after Brandt-Sims established himself as an NCAA West Prelims qualifier outdoors in the 200 last year on limited training.
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Throws:
STANFORD WILL HAVE a limited presence in the throws during the indoor season. However, Lena Giger and Tristen Newman are the exceptions. Giger broke the school freshman record in the women’s hammer last year and was a silver medalist in that event at the Pan Am Junior Championships in Edmonton while representing the U.S. She also was fourth in the Pac-12 in the shot put. Giger will compete in the shot put and weight throw indoors.
Newman, also a sophomore, established himself among Stanford’s all-time freshmen top-5 in both the shot and the hammer. One of the hardest workers around, Newman will compete in the shot and weight throw as well.
Valarie Allman, a junior who was fifth in the NCAA Outdoor discus last year, will compete indoors for the first time, in the weight throw.
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Coach's comment:
“We want to make sure we’re competing at our very best in June, at outdoor track championship time, and using the indoor season as a building block to get better all spring long,” Miltenberg said. “With that said, I think we can do some really good things indoors. “