STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford completed the first day of official training on Tuesday as a slew of preseason rankings were released for the 2024 cross country season.
Under coaches J.J. Clark, the Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field and Cross Country, and Ricardo Santos, the Stanford women are No. 7 and the men are No. 10 in the USTFCCCA national polls.
In the USTFCCCA West Region rankings, the Cardinal men are No. 1 and the women No. 3.
And in Stanford’s first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford’s men and women each were picked to finish third in the 17-team conference.
Last year, Stanford won the Pac-12 men’s championship and was second in the women’s. The Cardinal swept the NCAA West Region titles. In the NCAA Championships in Earlysville, Virginia, Stanford’s men were eighth and the Cardinal women 12th.
Stanford returns five men from its NCAA lineup and four women. Headlining the teams are fifth-year Cole Sprout for the men, and sophomores Amy Bunnage and Sophia Kennedy for the women. Sprout was a cross country All-American as a freshman and is a five-time All-American overall, as well as an Academic All-American.
Bunnage was the first freshman to win the Pac-12 women’s title in 16 years and Kennedy set a Stanford outdoor freshman record of 15:33.29 while placing 11th in the 5,000 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
The Stanford men bring a solid group of veterans, such as Sprout, team No. 2 at NCAA’s Robert DiDonato, sophomore twins Leo and Lex Young, and fifth-year Thomas Boyden. They are joined by a strong freshman class that includes Joshua Bell, Paul Bergeron, James Dargan, and Patrick Koon.
Fifth-year Zofia Dudek, a three-time All-American, is the team veteran. She joins Bunnage, Kennedy, and junior Riley Stewart from the 2023 NCAA lineup. Audrey DaDamio, now a graduate student in her fourth year, will be among the team leaders and sophomore Irene Riggs, the 2023 U.S. under-20 cross-country champion, is eager to make her Cardinal debut.
Stanford opens its season Friday at the USF Invitational at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park at 2 p.m. Next week, the team embarks on a team retreat to Longmont, Colorado.