Photo of Rebecca Mehra from 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
While much of the Stanford track and field team will be in Seattle for the UW Invitational this weekend, the highlights should come from Penn State.
Stanford will be aiming for NCAA qualifying marks in the distance medley relays and the women's 4x400 at the Penn State National Open in University Park, Pennsylvania. The DMR is typically Stanford's strongest indoor event.
Over the past three years, the Stanford women have run three of the eight fastest DMR times in collegiate history, and were third at the NCAA Championships. Last year, the Stanford men ran the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history before placing fourth at NCAA's.
With many newcomers to the lineup, Stanford will attempt to maintain that tradition.
Here is a closer look at each meet:
Penn State National Open
Where: University Park, Pa.
Site: Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track
Surface: 200-meter banked track.
Start times: Friday: 1 p.m. PT; Saturday, 7:30 a.m. PT
Heat sheets: Click here
Follow the Action:
Live results: Click here.
Webcast: Flotrack.org (premium coverage begins each day at 1 p.m. PT)
Stanford in USTFCCCA rankings:
Men: No. 13
Women: No. 23
Women's notes: The Stanford DMR lineup will be: Elise Cranny, Gaby Gayles, Olivia Baker, and Rebecca Mehra. In comparison to last year's third-place NCAA lineup, Cranny and Mehra are in the same positions. They finished 1-2, respectively, in the Pac-12 1,500 final last spring.
Gayles is new to the DMR, replacing the graduated Kristyn Williams. Gayles has a 53.59 outdoor 400 personal record. Baker (2:01.02 outdoor 800 PR) will not run this event at the NCAA's so that she can concentrate on the 800, but she was the NCAA outdoor 800 runner-up last year and Pac-12 400 champ. Malika Waschmann ran the 800 leg at NCAA's and could do the same this year in place of Baker.
The 4x400 will make an NCAA attempt as well. The lineup should include Gayles, Baker, Michaela Crunkleton Wilson and either Hannah Labrie-Smith or Missy Mongiovi. Gayles, Baker, and Crunkleton Wilson have been part of NCAA relays outdoors the past two years, but are searching for their first indoor qualification.
Men's notes: The DMR lineup should be: Isaac Cortes, Jackson Shumway, Brian Smith, and Grant Fisher. Shumway is the only holdover from 2016.
This will be the first DMR for Fisher, who redshirted as a freshman last year. This race marks his collegiate indoor debut. Last year's anchor, Sean McGorty, is not racing this indoor season to better prep himself for outdoors.
Cortes is a freshman and only the second since 1923 to pull off the 800/880-1,600/mile double at the California state high school meet -- a difficult task considering that there are no enrollment divisions and the prelims and finals for both events are run on back-to-back days in the two-day meet.
Smith (1:50.53 outdoor 800 PR) is a sophomore who is taking over from the graduated Justin Brinkley.
Shumway is the two-time Pac-12 400 hurdles runner-up and last year anchored Stanford to its first outdoor conference 4x400/mile relay title in 62 years.
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Stanford Schedule at Penn State (all times Pacific):
Friday
2:30 p.m.: Women's 60 hurdles prelims (Heat 3: Hannah Labrie-Smith).
3:30 p.m.: Women's DMR invitational (Elise Cranny, Gaby Gayles, Olivia Baker, Rebecca Mehra).
3:45 p.m.: Men's DMR invitational (Isaac Cortes, Jackson Shumway, Brian Smith, Grant Fisher).
4 p.m.: Women's 60 hurdles semifinals.
5:20 p.m.: Women's 60 hurdles final.
Saturday
12:20 p.m.: Men's mile invitational (Section 2: Jack Keelan).
12:30 p.m.: Women's 4x400 invitational (Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, Gaby Gayles, Olivia Baker).
12:40 p.m.: Men's 400 (Section 3: Jackson Shumway).
1:05 p.m.: Women's 800 invitational (Section 2: Malika Waschmann, Rebecca Mehra, Elise Cranny).
1:15 p.m.: Men's 800 Invitational (Section 1: Isaac Cortes, Brian Smith).
1:20 p.m.: Women's 1,000 invitational (Elise Cranny).
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UW Invitational
Where: Seattle, Wash.
Site: Dempsey Indoor
Surface: 307-meter flat track.
Start times: Friday, 1 p.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.
Heat sheets: Click here
Follow the Action:
Live results: Click here.
Webcast: Flotrack.org (premium coverage begins each day at 1 p.m. PT).
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Notes: Sarah Walker will make her collegiate debut, running in the fifth of seven sections of the 800 on Saturday. Walker is the last of the heralded five-member freshman distance class to put on a Stanford uniform. The others -- Christina Aragon, Ella Donaghu, Hannah DeBalsi, and Fiona O'Keeffe – all competed in cross country, with Aragon and O'Keeffe earning All-America honors.
Walker, from Lower Gynedd Township, ran 2:03.70 at a summer open meet for the nation's fastest time by a high schooler in 2015. It was the No. 3 time in Pennsylvania history. Besides the 800, she could run a leg on Stanford's distance medley relay team on Friday night.
The other four freshman are redshirting during the indoor season. However, Aragon, Donaghu, and O'Keeffe will race in this meet unattached. Aragon and O'Keeffe are scheduled to run the 3,000 and Donaghu the mile.
Donaghu will race in the fast section against Alexa Efraimson and Brie Felnagle. Kate Grace, the U.S. Olympic Trials champ in the 800, will reportedly rabbit for Felnagle, a 2007 NCAA 1,500 champ while at North Carolina and a 2015 World Cross Country Championships qualifier.
The fast section of the 800 features the two Stanford alums who happen to be the the fastest in school history: two-time NCAA outdoor runner-up and pro rookie Claudia Saunders and 2016 French Olympian Justine Fedronic.
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Stanford's schedule
Friday
5 p.m.: Women's pole vault (Flight 1: Taylore Jaques, Nicole Summersett).
5:30 p.m.: Women's weight throw (Flight 3: Valarie Allman).
5:45 p.m.: Men's 200 (Section 6: Frank Kurtz).
6:15 p.m.: Women's DMR (Section 2: Maddy Berkson, Anna Laman, Amber Lewis, Danielle Katz).
6:45 p.m.: Men's DMR (Section 2: Tai Dinger, Daniel Brady, Daniel Book, TBA).
8 p.m.: Women's 5,000 (Section 2: Vanessa Fraser).
Saturday
9:20 a.m.: Men's 60 hurdles qualifying (Heat 4: Daniel Brady).
9:50 a.m.: Women's 60 qualifying (Heat 4: Amber Lewis).
10 a.m.: Women's high jump (Flight 2: Rachel Reichenbach).
10 a.m.: Men's weight throw (Flight 2: Tristen Newman).
10:45 a.m.: Men's 60 hurdles preliminary round (Julian Body).
11 a.m.: Women's 60 preliminary round.
11:10 a.m.: Men's 60 preliminary round (Isaiah Brandt-Sims).
11:30 a.m.: Women's mile (Section 2: Catherine Pagano; Section 4: Anna Laman).
Noon: Men's mile (Section 3: Alex Ostberg).
12:25 p.m.: Women's 60 final.
12:30 p.m.: Men's 60 final.
12:46 p.m.: Men's 60 hurdles final.
1 p.m.: Women's shot put (Flight 3: Lena Giger).
1 p.m.: Men's high jump (Flight 1: Trevor Rex).
1 p.m.: Men's shot put (Flight 2: Tristen Newman).
1:20 p.m.: Men's 400 (Section 1: Julian Body; Section 4: Colin Dolese, Isaac Westlund).
1:40 p.m.: Women's 800 (Section 5: Sarah Walker).
2 p.m.: Men's 800 (Section 1: Christian White; Section 4: Daniel Book).
2 p.m.: Women's triple jump (Flight 3: Marisa Kwiatkowski).
2 p.m.: Men's triple jump (Flight 2: Jaak Uudmae).
2:30 p.m.: Men's 3,000 (Section 2: Blair Hurlock).
3:15 p.m.: Women's mile (Section 5: Maddy Berkson, Danielle Katz; Section 6: Ella Donaghu (unat.)).
3:30 p.m.: Men's mile (Section 4: Scott Buttinger).
3:50 p.m.: Men's 400 (Section 9: Frank Kurtz).
4:15 p.m.: Men's 800 (Section 5: Tai Dinger).
4:25 p.m.: Women's 3,000 (Section 3: Julia Maxwell, Abbie McNulty; Section 4: Christina Aragon (unat.), Sophie Chase, Fiona O'Keeffe (unat.)).
4:50 p.m.: Men's 3,000 (Section 3: Patrick Gibson, Alek Parsons (unat.); Section 4: Steven Fahy, Thomas Ratcliffe (unat.), Sam Wharton).
5:15 p.m.: Women's 4x400: (Section 3: Maddy Berkson, Anna Laman, Amber Lewis, Catherine Pagano).
5:30 p.m.: Men's 4x400 (Section 2: Tai Dinger, Daniel Book, Christian White, Scott Buttinger; Section 4: Julian Body, Colin Dolese, Daniel Brady, Isaac Westlund).
