Track and field concludes Pac-12 Championships

May 14, 2018, 11:52 p.m.

Six Cardinal individuals won titles at the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships hosted at Stanford this past weekend.

The men’s team finished second with 125 points behind Oregon’s 174, which marks the highest men’s team place since 2003 and a sizable improvement from last year’s 10th place. The women finished third with 119 points, placing them behind USC and runner-up Oregon.

On the men’s team, senior Harrison Williams became the first Stanford decathlete to win the conference title in 24 years on May 5. Williams scored 7,925 points, the highest total since 2013. He outscored the field by over 1,600 points. Senior Steven Fahy also earned himself a Pac-12 title after winning the 3,000 meter steeplechase on Saturday, running 8:50.07.

Closing the night on Saturday, fifth-year senior Jack Keelan won the 10,000 meters in a race that came down to the final strides. With one lap to go UCLA’s Robert Brandt led a group that included Oregon’s Tanner Anderson, Colorado’s Ryan Forsyth and Keelan. However, it was Keelan who came out on top, closing in a 59-second final lap to win it by a few meters over Anderson. Forsyth placed third followed by Brandt in fourth.

On Sunday, junior Grant Fisher and fifth-year senior Sean McGorty doubled in the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters only two hours apart. In races that fielded some of the biggest names from the cross-country season, Fisher and McGorty placed third and fourth, respectively, in both events. Four cardinal men finished within the top eight in the 5,000 meters, earning Stanford 14 points.

In the sprints, fifth-year senior Isaiah Brandt-Sims placed third in the 200 meters with a time of 21.01. Freshman Gabriel Navarro ran 10.41 in the 100 meters to finish fourth in the event. The two of them combined with senior Frank Kurtz and sophomore Julian Body notched a third in the 4×400 meter relay, clocking in at 3:08. They also finished third in the 4×100 meter relay with a time of 40.03.

On the women’s team, fifth-year senior Vanessa Fraser won the 10,000 meters on Saturday with a time of 33:10.84. With 500 meters to go, Fraser made a move on Colorado’s Kaitlyn Benner and never looked back. Fraser went on to make history as she broke her personal best by 45 seconds, set a new meet record by 10 seconds and wrote her name into the No. 3 spot on Stanford’s all-time performers’ list.

“A meet record is cool,” Fraser said. “But the best thing to me is my first Pac-12 title is in my last home meet in a Stanford uniform is a really special combination.”

Junior Mackenzie Little won the javelin, earning her third consecutive Pac-12 javelin title and extending the Cardinal winning streak in the event to seven years. Little’s throw of 54.88 meters won her the event. Sophomore two-sport athlete Jenna Gray, who also plays volleyball, finished second and freshman Virginia Miller finished fourth in an event which accumulated 22 points for Stanford.

On Sunday, the Cardinal women continued to shine when senior Elise Cranny won the 5,000 meters. Cranny had only ran the event once before in her collegiate career. The race began at a slow pace and one runner went down. In the final lap, Cranny followed closely on Oregon’s Lilli Burdon before taking the lead on the backstretch. Closing with a 64-second final lap, Cranny won with a time of 16:28.54

In the 1500 meters, Christina Aragon finished runner up with a time of 4:23.41 to Oregon’s Jessica Hull. Among the sprinters, the 4×400 meter relay team made up of senior Gaby Gayles, freshman Ashlan Best, junior Missy Mongiovi and senior Olivia Baker finished third.

Fifth-year senior Valarie Allman finished second behind Arizona’s Maggie Ewen in the discus throw.

 

Contact Alejandro Salinas at asalinas ‘at’ stanford.edu

Alejandro Salinas '21 is a Senior Staff Writer after serving as the Managing Editor of Sports for two volumes. Hailing from Pasadena, CA, he studies computer science and biology as a junior. In his free time he enjoys running, playing with dogs and watching sports. Contact him at asalinas 'at' stanforddaily.com.

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