COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Not long after final event of the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday, Stanford athletes were unwinding on the indoor football practice field in the building adjacent to the track.
Elise Cranny jumped on the back of thrower Valarie Allman, who remained still while Vanessa Fraser, leaped on to the back of Cranny. For a few steps, Allman carried both as they clung to Allman for dear life, before dropping to the ground in laughter.
While Chris Miltenberg, Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field, may not have approved, the scenario was a sign of something that he saw much of over the two-day meet at Texas A&M's Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, and that was a team camaraderie reflected in performances on the track.
Moments after completing her semifinal heat in the mile Friday to qualify for Saturday's final, Cranny made it clear to the coaches that she wanted to run a leg on the distance medley relay just under three hours later. Miltenberg had alternative lineups in mind, but Cranny's enthusiasm for the opportunity to help her teammates contributed to run her third, in the 800-meter slot.
Stanford went on to shatter the school record while running the fastest second-place time in meet history and the fifth-fastest in collegiate history.
When Miltenberg was asked for a highlight of the weekend, in which the Cardinal women placed eighth as a team and the men were 21st, he described that moment.
"The attitude back here in the warmup area, when Elise Cranny walked back after that mile prelim saying, 'I want to do it, put me on,'" Miltenberg said. "That attitude, that mindset, was probably the highlight of the whole thing for me."
Cranny came back to place fifth in the mile, earning her 10th All-America honor.
It was just one of many instances of selflessness by Cardinal athletes throughout the competition. Many described the main motivation to succeed came from wanting to do well for their teammates.
* * *
Sometimes big performances aren't necessarily the ones that get the headlines. For Allman, that was true in the 20-pound weight throw Saturday.
With her mother Lisa fidgeting and pacing, Valarie needed a throw of 21.11 meters on her third attempt or she would be done and left out of the nine-women final. Allman responded with 21.17 (69-5 ½) and finished in eighth – a podium finish and a team point -- after entering the competition as the No. 12 seed.
"I feel like I'm at a point career-wise where my trust in Coach (Zeb) Sion helps in moments like that," said Allman, a fifth-year senior. "I knew he had total confidence that I could do it in that moment. Your heart is racing, the body's kind of shaking. But it was a good boost for my confidence to execute on the throw I needed to get into finals."
With the close of the indoor season as Stanford's first NCAA women's weight throw scorer, Allman can turn to the discus, her primary event. During a redshirt season last year, Allman placed third in the discus at the U.S. Outdoor Championships and made the World Championships team in London. She is a two-time Pac-12 discus champion.
"Going forward, we'll split between discus and hammer," Allman said. "But discus is my love and my passion. I love outdoors, I'm so excited that it's here. I can't wait."
With Lena Giger placing sixth in the shot put, Stanford joined Minnesota as the only schools to have different women score (top eight) in each throwing event.
* * *
Grant Fisher's first indoor season ended with a fourth in the 3,000. Fisher got boxed in on the final lap and was unable to emerge soon enough to cover the moves of Northern Arizona's Andy Trousard and Syracuse's Justyn Knight, who finished 1-2.
The congestion of 16 runners on a tight 200-meter track can be difficult to manage and Fisher, though out for the victory, is willing to use the race as a learning experience.
"I could have done a better job out there," said Fisher, the reigning NCAA outdoor 5,000-meter champ, "I did a good job early on of tucking in by the rail and not fighting any battles. I think I played that card a little too long. There was a point where everybody came up on the right and it would have been beneficial if I flared out a little bit to get some space. I made it harder on myself rather than easier.
"This will help my decision-making skills outdoors, because you've got to make quick decisions indoor, and outdoor you have a little more leeway with the bigger track. I think it was a good season overall, but I'm definitely looking for more."
* * *
If a distance race is tactical, there are going to be a lot of runners in tight quarters. That's doubly true indoors on the shorter track. In the women's 3,000, there were two falls. The first happened behind Stanford runners Christina Aragon, Vanessa Fraser and Fiona O'Keeffe. The second fall took out O'Keeffe.
Aragon had to leap over her and Fraser was forced on top of the rail, but kept her balance and continued on.
"It feels so bad to avoid her and keep running," Aragon said.
"But that's what you have to do because that's what she would want us to do," Fraser said. "To stop and help her up, as much as I want to …
Said O'Keeffe, "The field was really crowded. These kind of things just happen in tactical races sometimes. I was the one who went down this time. In other races, other people go down. It was my turn this time I guess."
She got up and caught up to the field, but the effort cost her, though O'Keeffe still managed to finish 10th, behind Fraser in fourth and Aragon in seventh.
"At the time, it was a surge of adrenaline, but by the time the race picked up again, I was definitely feeling it a little bit," O'Keeffe said.
Tight quarters forces runners into making decisions.
"It's hard because you want to be able to have an idea of what's going on right in front of you," Fraser said. "If there are any moves made you want to be able to cover those moves, but at the same time, that can add stress if you're paying attention to every single person in the race. Do I need to be moving? It's kind of a balance of staying in your own bubble and really focusing on your own space and not worrying about everything."
* * *
How does the indoor season project to outdoors?
"Especially with the women, everyone is starting to get a clear vision of what we can do at the Pac-12 and national championship meet," Miltenberg said. "Instead of something that we're just talking about, we're realizing this is doable, this is real. We've been talking about it for years, but now we're seeing it with clarity."
With the addition of potential Stanford scoring events in the discus and javelin, Stanford has potential to make a big impact at NCAA outdoors.
"More importantly,"Miltenberg said, "the culture and the mindset of the team concept is there."