On Saturday, Stanford begins its 128th year of track and field, at the UW Indoor Preview in Seattle. The program dates back to 1893, in just the second spring of the university's existence.
Through this fall, Stanford's teams -- men's and women's indoor and outdoor track, and cross country -- have combined for 13 national team championships, 86 NCAA individual titles, and 945 All-America honors by 283 different athletes.
Stanford's programs have won 61 conference team titles and 427 individual conference championships by 270 different athletes.
Stanford has produced 70 different track and field Olympians, including 21 different medalists and 10 gold-medal winners, including Tokyo 2020 women's discus champion Valarie Allman and 2016 women's pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi. In Tokyo, Stanford was represented by eight track and field alumni.
Here some facts involving this year's team:
Stanford has 12 All-Americans, including cross country, and indoor and outdoor track. Seven are women and five are men. Women's All-Americans are Christina Aragon, Ashlan Best, Julia Heymach, Allie Jones, Jessica Lawson, Virginia Miller, and Aubrey Roberts. Men's All-Americans are Charles Hicks, Brandon McGorty, Gabriel Navarro, Ky Robinson, and Cole Sprout.
There are six outdoor track and field first-team All-Americans: Christina Aragon, Julia Heymach, Virginia Miller, Charles Hicks, Gabriel Navarro, and Ky Robinson.
Christina Aragon has the most All-America honors, with seven, and the highest finish on the team at an NCAA Track and Field Championships, as an individual and on a relay. She was fourth in the 1,500 outdoors in 2018 and anchored the distance medley relay team to second in 2018 indoors.
Three Cardinal were finalists at the Olympic Trials last summer: Julia Heymach, Keyshawn King, and Virginia Miller. Heymach was sixth in the women's 1,500, King was 12th in the men's triple jump, and Miller was sixth in the women's javelin.
Stanford has two super seniors -- sixth-year competitors taking advantage of an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic. They are Christina Aragon and Aubrey Roberts.
Two Cardinal were medalists at the 2021 World Under-20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya: Udodi Onwuzurike and Ellie Deligianni. Onwuzurike, competing for Nigeria, won the men's 200. Deligianni, of Greece, was third in the women's 800.
Stanford has five new transfers. Anthony Argyropoulos, a thrower from Penn, comes in as a junior. Melissa Tanaka (middle-distance runner from Penn), Olivia Okoli, a sprinter from Harvard, and Chudi Ikpeazu, a thrower from Penn, are graduate transfers.
Eleven runners have broken 14 minutes for 5,000 meters: Charles Hicks (personal best, 13:33.89), Callum Bolger (13:39.32), Connor Lane (13:42.31), Thomas Boyden (13:42.63), Cole Sprout (13:43.92), Devin Hart (13:45.38), DJ Principe (13:49.26), Ky Robinson (13:51.53), Meika Beaudoin-Rousseau (13:52.77), Evan Burke (13:58.09), and Michael Vernau (13:59.89).
There are four Stanford school-record holders on the roster. Julia Heymach ran 4:04.84 at the Olympic Trials last year to break the school women's 1,500 record by four seconds and set a Pac-12 record with the fourth-fastest time in collegiate history. Ky Robinson ran 8:32.01 in the men's steeplechase at the 2021 NCAA Championships, also setting Australian and Oceania under-20 records. Ashlan Best holds the women's indoor 400 record, running 53.02 in 2020. And Gabriel Navarro was on record-setting 4x400 relay teams indoors (3:07.66 in 2019) and outdoors (3:04.82 in 2018).
Stanford has four home meets during the outdoor season: the Cardinal Classic on March 19, the Stanford Invitational April 1-2, the Payton Jordan Invitational on April 29, and the Big Meet against Cal on April 30.