Photo of Lena Giger at 2016 Stanford Invitational by Spencer Allen/SportsImageWire.com.
STANFORD, Calif. – For those who love track and field, the Stanford Invitational is the perfect destination.
With 23 1/2 hours of competition over two days at Cobb Track and Angell Field, including 14 1/2 on Friday alone, there is plenty to satisfy one's track cravings. The 42nd meet features collegiate and high school competitions, with a share of post-collegians, including a handful of international competitors.
Though a few Stanford athletes have competed already, the outdoor track and field season truly begins Friday and Saturday with this meet, essentially launching the 125th season of Stanford track and field.
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Meet information:
Stanford Invitational
When: Friday and Saturday.
What: 42nd Stanford Invitational
Where: Cobb Track and Angell Field
Events begin:
Friday: Field, 9 a.m.; Running, 11 a.m.
Saturday: Field, 9 a.m.; Running, 11 a.m.
Follow the action:
Entries/Live results/Heat sheets: Click here.
Event schedule: Click here.
Flotrack premium webcast (coverage begins 11 a.m. each day): Click here.
Meet Twitter: @StanfordMeets
Stanford Twitter: @stanfordXCTF
Stanford Instagram: StanfordXCTF
Tickets: For adults, tickets are $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 a.m. each day.
More ticket information: Click here.
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Parking:
Best options: Varsity Lot, Lot 2.
Free parking on Friday and Saturday is available in the Varsity Lot (next to Sunken Diamond) and Lot 2 (on the El Camino Real side of Stanford Stadium). Access to both is from Nelson Road/Sam McDonald Road off Galvez Street. Keep in mind that parking is free everywhere on campus after 4 p.m. Friday and on weekends.
Other parking options: Galvez Lot: Across Galvez Street from the track stadium, on the northeast corner of Galvez and Campus Drive. It can be best reached on Lasuen Street, which comes off Campus Drive, one block north of the track. Graduate School of Business parking garage: Across Campus Drive from Maples Pavilion, this is a good option because of its close location to the track.
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Stanford Notes:
All-Americans to compete
Eleven Stanford All-Americans are scheduled to compete, including eight women. Of those, Olivia Baker and Mackenzie Little have earned first-team All-America honors outdoors.
Baker, a junior who was the 2016 NCAA runner-up in the 800 meters, is entered in the 400 on Friday and the 200 on Saturday. She also may run in the 4x400 relay Saturday. She is the reigning Pac-12 champion in the 400 and has won seven All-America honors indoors and outdoors.
Little won the Pac-12 javelin title last year as a freshman and is a past World Youth champion for Australia. She was seventh at the NCAA Championships and though she grew up in Australia, she competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials. She made her Stanford debut in this meet last year and came within six inches of the school record. She throws Friday at 11 a.m.
Two-time Pac-12 discus champion Valarie Allman was third in the NCAA discus last year and sixth at the Olympic Trials. An All-America in the discus and the hammer, Allman will compete in both events, but will do so unattached during a redshirt season.
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Collegiate debuts
Two multi-sport Stanford athletes will make their collegiate debuts – Terrence Alexander and Jenna Gray.
Alexander is a junior cornerback on the Stanford football who joined the track team this season and will run the 100 and 4x100 relay on Friday and the 200 on Saturday. He joins football teammate Isaiah Brandt-Sims, a three-year Stanford sprint veteran, in all three races.
Gray is a freshman and modern-day Bo Jackson. She is a three-sport athlete at Stanford, starting at setter for the NCAA champion volleyball team in the fall and playing on the Cardinal beach volleyball team this spring, while also competing in track. She will throw the javelin on Friday alongside Little. Gray is a quick learner. She took began throwing the javelin as a junior at St. James Academy in Shawnee, Kansas, and promptly won back-to-back state 5A titles and had the sixth-farthest throw of any high schooler in the nation last year.
Gray is among eight freshmen women who will compete for the first time in a home track meet in a Stanford uniform, and it's a supremely talented group: Gray, Christina Aragon, Hannah DeBalsi, Ella Donaghu, Erika Malaspina, Fiona O'Keeffe, Jaimi Salone, and Sarah Walker.
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Distance class in action
Aragon, DeBalsi, Donaghu, O'Keeffe, and Walker made up the nation's top recruiting class of women's distance runners. Aragon and O'Keeffe earned All-America honors in cross country and were joined by Donaghu as scorers on Stanford's fifth-place team.
This is the first outdoor track race for Aragon since she was third at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Poland on July 24, becoming the first American to medal in the women's 1,500. Her 4:08.71 made her the fourth-fastest U.S. junior ever, bumping Suzy Hamilton to No. 5.
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Schedule of Stanford athletes:
Friday
10 a.m.: Men's hammer, collegiate – Landon Ellingson.
11 a.m.: Men's 5,000, section 4 – Will Lauer.
11 a.m.: Women's javelin, invitational – Jenna Gray, Mackenzie Little, Victoria Smith.
11 a.m.: Women's shot put, invitational – Lena Giger.
11:30 a.m.: Women's long jump, collegiate – Marisa Kwiatkowski.
11:44 a.m.: Women's 100 hurdles, prelims -- Hannah Labrie-Smith, Amber Lewis.
12:05 p.m.: Men's 110 hurdles, prelims – Julian Body, Daniel Brady.
12:18 p.m.: Women's 100, prelims -- Michaela Crunkleton Wilson.
12:30 p.m.: Women's pole vault – Erika Malaspina, Nicole Summersett.
12:34 p.m.: Men's 100, prelims -- Terrence Alexander, Isaiah Brandt-Sims, Dion Brandt-Sims (unattached), Jackson Shumway (alum).
1 p.m.: Men's high jump -- Trevor Rex.
12:51 p.m.: Women's 1,500, section 6 – Hannah DeBalsi; section 5 – Sophie Chase.
1:30 p.m.: Men's javelin, invitational – Trevor Danielson, Charles Kerr.
1:22 p.m.: Men's 1,500, section 4 – Patrick Perrier; Section 5 – Ryan Silva, Brian Smith, Garrett Sweatt.
2:45 p.m.: Women's long jump, invitational – Daryth Gayles.
2:31 p.m.: Women's 400 hurdles – Hannah Labrie-Smith, Amber Lewis.
3 p.m.: Women's hammer, invitational – Valarie Allman (unattached).
3:03 p.m.: Men's 400 hurdles -- Julian Body, Daniel Brady, Colin Dolese, Lucas Ege.
3:30 p.m.: Women's high jump --Rachel Reichenbach.
4 p.m.: Men's discus, invitational – Landon Ellingson.
4:19 p.m.: Women's 400 – Olivia Baker, Missy Mongiovi, Sarah Walker.
4:35 p.m.: Men's 400 -- Frank Kurtz, Amit Maity, Isaac Westlund, Jackson Shumway (alum).
4:54 p.m.: Women's 100, final.
4:58 p.m.: Men's 100, final.
6:25 p.m.: Women's 1,500, section 3 – Maddy Berkson, Danielle Katz, Fiona O'Keeffe.
6:32 p.m.: Women's 1,500, section 2 – Malika Waschmann.
6:52 p.m.: Men's 1,500, section 2 – Tai Dinger.
7:05 p.m.: Women's 5,000, section 3 – Julia Maxwell.
7:45 p.m.: Men's 5,000, section 3 – Tom Coyle, Tai Dinger, Patrick Gibson, Patrick Perrier, Alek Parsons (unattached).
8:40 p.m.: Men's 5,000, section 1 – Garrett Sweatt, Collin Leibold (alum).
10:05 p.m.: Women's 10,000, section 2 – Abbie McNulty.
10:43 p.m.: Men's 10,000, section 2 – Blair Hurlock.
Saturday
10 a.m.: Women's hammer, collegiate – Lena Giger.
1 p.m.: Men's hammer, invitational – Tristen Newman, Michael Painter.
1 p.m.: Women's triple jump – Marisa Kwiatkowski.
1:30 p.m.: Men's pole vault – Dylan Duvio (unattached).
1:45 p.m.: Men's 4x100 relay – Stanford 'A', Stanford 'B'
2:11 p.m.: Women's 800 – Christina Aragon, Maddy Berkson, Ella Donaghu, Anna Laman, Catherine Pagano, Sarah Walker.
2:32 p.m.: Men's 800 – Daniel Book, Scott Buttinger, Tom Coyle, Tai Dinger, Nathaniel Kucera, Patrick Perrier, Ryan Silva, Brian Smith, Christian White.
3 p.m.: Women's discus, invitational – Valarie Allman (uattached), Summer Pierson (alum).
3 p.m.: Men's shot put, invitational – Tristen Newman.
2:50 p.m.: Women's 200 -- Olivia Baker, Michaela Crunkleton Wilson, Hannah Labrie-Smith, Missy Mongiovi.
3:06 p.m.: Men's 200 -- Terrence Alexander, Dion Brandt-Sims (unattached), Isaiah Brandt-Sims, Colin Dolese, Frank Kurtz, Amit Maity, Isaac Westlund.
4:06 p.m.: Women's 100 hurdles, final.
4:19 p.m.: Men's 110 hurdles, final.
5 p.m.: Women's discus, collegiate – Jaimi Salone.
4:44 p.m.: Women's 4x400 – Stanford 'A', Stanford 'B'.
4:56 p.m.: Men's 4x400 relay – Stanford 'A', Stanford 'B'.
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Meet highlights:
Women's steeplechase, section 1: Friday, 5:32 p.m.
Boise State sophomore Allie Ostrander, one of the most promising young runners in the country, makes her collegiate outdoor track debut. The Alaska native and accomplished mountain runner charged into collegiate competition by placing second at the NCAA Cross Country Championships as a freshman, but since March, 2016, she has mostly been sidelined since a knee injury forced her to drop out of the NCAA Indoor 5,000. She reappeared at the U.S. Olympic Trials and placed eighth in the 5,000 final, but hasn't competed against collegiate competition since that NCAA Indoor meet. This also marks her steeplechase debut -- her sister Taylor was a steeplechaser at Oregon's Willamette University. As for opponents, pro Alex Wilson ran 9:50.07 last year.
Here are meet preview links from Flotrack.org:
Allie Ostrander's collegiate outdoor track debut.
Men's Preview, featuring Oregon's Edward Cheserek in the 10,000.
NCAA cross-country runner-up Anna Rohrer's first 10,000.
High Schools:
Here are Albert Caruana's s high school meet preview stories on Milesplit.com:
Friday's events include future Stanford runner Michael Vernau in the boys' 3,000.
Saturday's running events are previewed here.
Saturday's field events are previewed here.