The ultimate track and field showdown is a few days away, as the Cardinal and the Golden Bears prepare to fight it out at the annual Big Meet. With Cal hosting this year’s meet, the Stanford track and field team will travel to the East Bay to compete for Bay Area bragging rights, a school title and an opportunity to post some top marks — and potentially qualify for nationals.
Several Stanford athletes enter the meet with top national ranks. Sophomore Amaechi Morton currently sits at the 13th position in the nation in the 400-meter dash with his time of 46.66 seconds. This weekend, Morton looks to compete in the 110 hurdles and the 400 hurdles. While the main focus of the meet is to beat Cal, the Stanford athletes will also look to win individual event titles and achieve top performances along the way.
“Individually I want to improve on my time in the 110 hurdles while snagging a win,” Morton said. “Also, I would like to defend my title in the 400 hurdles, run a nice opener and break the Big Meet record.”
“My goals are to execute great races, while scoring my team as many points as possible,” he added.
Several other men are also ranked early in the season. Sophomore Dylan Ferris is ranked seventh in the 800 meters with a time of 1:48.72. Sophomore Brendan Gregg occupies the 10th position in the 10,000 meters with a time of 28:56.44. In the field events, sophomore Geoffrey Tabor is ranked 10th in the discus throw with a toss of 184-10.
On the women’s side, sophomore Georgia Griffin is ranked 11th in the 10,000 meters with a time of 33:39.52. In a three-way tie for third in the pole vault is sophomore Katerina Stefanidi, with a mark of 14-1.25. In the triple jump, junior Whitney Liehr sits at 12th place with a leap of 42-2.
Looking to be ranked, and yearning to improve her Stanford Invite winning mark in the long jump is freshman Karynn Dunn. This weekend, Dunn will compete in the 100 hurdles, long jump, triple jump and 4×400 relay.
“I plan on getting better by working on specific things while I am at practice and just trusting in myself and my coach,” Dunn said. “My goals for outdoor season are to make it to NCAAs and to have a personal record in the long jump, triple jump, 100 hurdles and my 4×400 relay split.”
Indeed, this weekend will provide Dunn the opportunity to start working on her goals, while establishing Cardinal dominance in the Bay.
Although Big Meet is not at home this year, the team encourages fans and supporters to come to Berkeley to attend the meet. Field events commence at 10:30 a.m., while running events begin at 1 p.m. The meet is scheduled to end around 5 p.m., closing with the exciting 4×400 relays.
After Big Meet, Stanford will have the opportunity to attend several different meets, with the next home meet being the Payton Jordan Invitational on May 1.