FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Last week at the Cardinal Classic, five Stanford women broke 54 seconds in the same 400-meter race. Only two other schools in the country can claim as many sub-54's this season and only one of those achieved it on a single day as Stanford did.
Earlier Saturday, the Stanford men ran their fastest 4x100 relay in 14 years. And both the Stanford men's and women's 4x400 relays earned times that mark them among the fastest 10 in school history.
What we have here is a sprint renaissance at Stanford. When Chris Miltenberg, Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field, arrived for the 2013 season, areas of the sprint corps needed so much work that Stanford barely fielded a men's 4x100 team for the Big Meet, and had to plug in a pole vaulter to do it.
But work first by Jody Stewart and now by current sprints coach Gabe Sanders have changed the sprints into a strength. For example, at the Big Meet earlier this month, Isaiah Brandt-Sims and freshman Gabriel Navarro went 1-2 in the 100 meters with the second- and third-fastest times in school history.
A brief history lesson provides some context for recent Stanford sprint history as the Cardinal sprinters compete in the boldly-titled National Relay Championships at University of Arkansas this weekend, along with 15 other teams. For all the success the Cardinal sprinters have had this year, it's built up to this meet Stanford has targeted as a place to get qualifying marks for the NCAA West Prelims.
With strong competition and a championship atmosphere, the Cardinal has a chance to do something special at the two-day meet, which begins Friday. The first day is a conventional meet, and Saturday becomes mostly relays, especially in a two-hour window from 5-7 p.m. PT that will be televised
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Meet information:
National Relay Championships
When: Friday and Saturday.
Where: Fayetteville, Ark.
Event schedule: Click here (PDF).
Follow the action:
Live results: Click here.
Live stream:
Friday: Click here.
Saturday: Click here.
Television (Sat., 5-7 p.m. PT, SEC Network): Click here.
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Stanford is set to host the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships on May 5-6 and May 12-13 on Cobb Track and Angell Field. The first weekend, with the multi-event athletes competing, is free to the public. Tickets ($10/adult; $5/student, youth, seniors) are required to watch May 12-13. Fans can save $5 per person by purchasing their tickets online, and in-advance. To secure your tickets for the Championships, visit gostanford.com/pac12track.
