The Stanford men’s and women’s track and field teams had a weekend in Seattle, Wash. filled with highs as well as lows. While finishing in second place on both sides at the MPSF Championship was a modest disappointment, there were some top performances and meet titles to highlight the weekend.
For most schools, a second place finish would be everything the program dreamed of – not the case at Stanford. In a program where the women have won the title five times and the men are currently ranked No. 14 in the country, second place feels a little short. Yet the Stanford men and women pulled off some amazing performances to be proud of, and as a result they will be sending a large Cardinal contingent to the NCAA Indoor Championships the weekend of March 12th and 13th.
Leading the way for the women in the first day of competition was senior Griffin Matthew, who won the 200-meter dash with a time of 23.86 seconds. Right behind Matthew was freshman Carissa Levingston, who placed second in the event with a time of 24.03 seconds.
“I was happy with my win in the 200 meters,” Matthew said, “but I’d still like to improve my time in the next few weeks.”
The performances by Matthew and Levingston are promising for a track program like Stanford, since Stanford is not known for sprints. As a well-known distance powerhouse, having sprinters winning meet titles and showing depth in an event boosts the reputation of Stanford sprints.
“The sprinters really stepped up this weekend and helped get more points for the team, which felt great,” Matthew said.
The distance women also provided some top performances in day one, led by junior Stephanie Marcy, who placed second in the 5,000 meters with a career best time of 16:18.77. The distance medley relay team also fared well, placing third with a time of 11:31.58. The team consisted of junior Maddie Duhon, freshman Hannah Farley, freshman Justine Fedronic and sophomore Victoria Pennings.
In day two of the meet, the women continued their stellar record, with sophomore Katerina Stefanidi leading the way with the meet title in the pole vault. Her mark of 14-feet-1.25 was an improvement on her own school record, set earlier this year, and was also one of the best vaults in the NCAA this season. Junior Whitney Liehr provided another meet title in the second day, winning the triple jump with a leap of 40-feet-9.5.
Day two also proved fruitful for sprinters Levingston and Matthew, as they placed second and third in the 60-meter dash with times of 7.33 and 7.46, respectively. Levingston’s time was the third fastest in Stanford history, a great honor for the freshman.
On the men’s side, day one started with two meet titles, one each from a pair of juniors, Carter Wells and Elliott Heath. Heath won the 5,000 meters with a time of 13:47.14, barely missing the NCAA automatic qualification. Wells won the weight throw with a toss of 62-feet-11.5, which was a personal best. The conference titles were firsts for both Heath and Wells.
Day two also proved successful for Heath, who placed second in the 3,000 meters with a time of eight minutes flat, a provisional standard. Also finishing in second place, in the 800, was sophomore Dylan Ferris. Ferris’s time of 1:49.05 was just off his season best.
“The 800 was a good race, but I came short of what I wanted to do,” Ferris said. “But overall, I am happy with our performances over the weekend.”
On the side of the sprinters, redshirt senior Tyrone McGraw led the Cardinal men, setting a school record in the 60 meters with a time of 6.80 seconds. Sophomore Amaechi Morton also established a school record, beating his own time in the 400 from last season. He ran a 46.71 to finish in third place and earn a provisional mark.
Sophomore Geoffrey Tabor performed well in the field in day two, placing second in the shot put with a toss of 58-feet-5.25, a provisional standard.
At the end, the men and women ended the meet in second place, with the men trailing UCLA and the women trailing Oregon.
Next up for several members of the team will be a trip to Fayetteville, Ark. for the NCAA Indoor Championships. However, a lot of the team will also be competing at The Farm this weekend in the first meet of the outdoor season. Known as the Quad Meet, the Cardinal will compete against teams from Cal, UC-Davis, Fresno State, Cal Poly and San Francisco State. The meet begins at 11:40 a.m. on Saturday.