Curtain Rises

Photo of Olivia Baker by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com

SEATTLE – The athlete who capped Stanford's 2016 season will be among those opening the 2017 track and field campaign.

Harrison Williams was the last on the track in 2016, finishing second in the Thorpe Cup, a decathlon dual between the United States and Germany that finished on July 30 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Williams completed a stellar year in which he became the first Stanford decathlete to reach 8,000 points, earned two first-team All-America honors, and wore a U.S. senior national team singlet for the first time.

Williams, competing in the pole vault and 60-meter hurdles, will be among 35 Stanford athletes at the UW Indoor Preview at Washington's 307-meter Dempsey Indoor track Saturday. The Cardinal contingent includes NCAA outdoor 800 runner-up Olivia Baker and NCAA discus bronze medalist Valarie Allman – both U.S. Olympic Trials competitors – and nine All-Americans altogether.

Baker is scheduled to run the 600 and 4x400 relay. She is Stanford's indoor record-holder in both events. The 600 should provide a rematch with Oregon's Raevyn Rogers, a three-time NCAA 800 champ, after the two finished 1-2 outdoors at nationals last spring. In this meet last year, Rogers ran the fastest collegiate indoor 600 in history (1:26.34) on any-sized track and Baker was third in a school-record 1:29.08.

Allman will compete in the 20-pound weight throw, an event in which she holds the Stanford school record. A discus thrower by trade, Allman took up the weight throw for the first time during last year's indoor season and carried the momentum outdoors when she placed 11th and earned second-team All-America honors in its sister event, the hammer.

Two freshmen will make their collegiate debuts, Julian Body and Isaac Cortes. Body, out of Portland, was a double hurdles winner in the Oregon 6A championships as both a junior and senior. He had the nation's No. 6 high school 300 hurdles time (36.68) last year. Body will run the 400 and 4x400.

Cortes, out of Temecula, became the second male since 1923 to sweep the middle-distance races at the California state meet. Cortes, the Millrose Games high school mile winner, is on the entry list for the 1,000, 4x400, and 4x800.
 * * *
Meet Information:

UW Indoor Preview
Where: Seattle, Wash.
Site: Dempsey Indoor
Surface: 307-meter flat Mondo track.
Events: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
 
Follow the Action:
Live results: Click here
Webcast: FloPro (premium)

Accepted entries: Click here
   
Stanford in the USTFCCCA rankings:    
   Men: No. 10
   Women: No. 23
 * * *
Stanford Schedule:

Women's weight throw (9 a.m.): Valarie Allman.
Men's 60 hurdles (9:42 a.m., qualifying; 10:40 a.m., prelims; 1:05 p.m., final): Harrison Williams.
Women's 60 (9:55 a.m., qualifying; 10:52 a.m., prelims; 12:35 p.m., final): Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, Marisa Kwiatkowski, Amber Lewis.
Men's pole vault (10 a.m.): Harrison Williams.
Women's high jump (10 a.m.): Rachel Reichenbach.
Women's 1,000 (11:17 a.m.): Maddy Berkson, Anna Laman, Rebecca Mehra, Catherine Pagano, Malika Waschmann.
Men's 1,000 (11:30 a.m.): Scott Buttinger, Isaac Cortes, Tai Dinger.
Women's mile (11:45 a.m.): Vanessa Fraser.
Men's weight throw (12:15 p.m.): Tristen Newman.
Women's pole vault (1 p.m.): Jackie McNulty, Nicole Summersett.
Women's 400 (1:15 p.m.): Gaby Gayles.
Men's high jump (1:30 p.m.): Trevor Rex.
Men's 400 (1:38 p.m.): Julian Body, Daniel Brady, Colin Dolese, Lucas Ege, Frank Kurtz, Jackson Shumway, Isaac Westlund.
Women's 600 (1:56 p.m.): Olivia Baker.
Men's triple jump (2 p.m.): Jaak Uudmae.
Women's triple jump (2 p.m.): Marisa Kwiatkowski.
Men's 600 (2:10 p.m.): Daniel Book, Brian Smith.
Men's 800 (2:40 p.m.): Christian White.
Women's 200 (2:57 p.m.): Hannah Labrie-Smith, Amber Lewis.
Men's shot put (3 p.m.): Tristen Newman.
Women's shot put (3 p.m.): Lena Giger.
Women's 4x800 (3:42 p.m.): Stanford (Maddy Berkson, Vanessa Fraser, Anna Laman, Catherine Pagano).
Men's 4x800 (3:55 p.m.): Stanford (Daniel Book, Isaac Cortes, Tai Dinger, Brian Smith).
Men's 3,000 (4:47 p.m.): Patrick Gibson, Blair Hurlock.
Women's 4x400 (5:20 p.m.): Stanford 'A' (Gaby Gayles, Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, Olivia Baker, Hannah Labrie-Smith), Stanford 'B' pool (Maddy Berkson, Anna Laman, Amber Lewis, Jackie McNulty, Rebecca Mehra, Catherine Pagano, Malika Waschmann).
Men's 4x400 (5:40 p.m.): Stanford 'A' (Julian Body, Frank Kurtz, Colin Dolese, Jackson Shumway), Stanford 'B' (Isaac Westlund, Daniel Brady, Brian Smith, Lucas Ege), Stanford 'C' (Scott Buttinger, Isaac Cortes, Tai Dinger, Christian White).