PHILADELPHIA – Following their winning performance at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships last month, the Stanford women earned the yearly "double" in the distance medley relay by capturing the Penn Relays crown on Friday.
In the rain on the Franklin Field track, the Stanford team of Melissa Tanaka, Maya Valmon, Roisin Willis, and Juliette Whittaker – the same foursome and the same order as NCAA indoors – won in a Stanford outdoor record 10:50.56.
This was Stanford's first appearance at the Penn Relays since 2017 and first victory at the meet since the women's 4x1,500-meters in 2015. However, it was not the first Penn Relays victory for one Cardinal. Tanaka, now a Stanford grad student, ran the 800 leg while an undergrad on Penn's winning DMR team in 2019.
College Women's Distance Medley Championship of America Winners Stanford University ?@StanfordXCTF? pic.twitter.com/lf3FSda3Mg
— Penn Relays (@pennrelays) April 28, 2023
Tanaka opened in 3:19.93 for 1,200, handing off to Valmon in second, nearly two seconds behind leader Boston College. Valmon unleashed a 400 split of 52.15 – the fastest of the race – to surge into the lead with B.C. just behind.
Willis ran a 2:04.83 split over 800 to gap the field. She handed off to fellow freshman Whittaker with a 3.55-second lead over second-place Oklahoma State as B.C. dropped to third. Though Oklahoma State's Billah Jepkirui gained nearly a second, Whittaker reeled off a 4:33.67 anchor split over 1,600 to give Stanford a comfortable victory by 2.64 seconds.
This is the sixth-fastest DMR time in collegiate outdoor history, just behind the 2009 Tennessee team (10:50.51) also coached by J.J. Clark, Stanford's Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field and Cross Country. The previous Stanford outdoor record was 11:11.07 from the second-place team at the 2015 Penn Relays: Jessica Tonn, Kristyn Williams, Claudia Saunders, and Elise Cranny.
Stanford has won nine relay races at the Penn Relays, including seven by the Cardinal women, but this is the first in the DMR.
The winning foursome returns to the Bay Area on Friday night and will compete at the 128th Big Meet at Cal's Edwards Stadium on Saturday. Field events begin at 9:30 a.m. and running events at 12:05 p.m.