Stanford men’s and women’s track and field will continue its quest for a conference title as they compete in the Pac-12 Conference Championships this weekend at the University of Oregon.
Host team Oregon will be going for a ninth-straight sweep of the men’s and women’s titles, while Stanford will be competing against the top competitors to get its shot at a title.
The Cardinal has had a strong showing in distance this season, and will look to its distance athletes to run their best races this weekend. On the women’s side, senior Malika Waschmann will be competing in the 1,500-meter race and junior Olivia Baker in the 400, seeded sixth and seventh in their respective events. Baker placed second in the NCAA Championships in the 800 last year, and the 400 will give her a chance to show her speed with much less pacing. Baker will also join Missy Mongiovi, Michaela Crunkleton Wilson and Hannah Labrie-Smith in the 4×400-meter relay.
Freshmen Christina Aragon and Sarah Walker will be representing Stanford in the 800 meters. Earlier this season, Aragon ran the seventh-fastest time in the 1,500 by an American this year. Freshman Fiona O’Keefe will be joining Waschmann in the 1,500 and will also run the 5,000 meters on Saturday, just three hours apart. The highest-seeded woman in the track events will be Danielle Katz, whose time of 10:15.75 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase earned her the third-best rank coming into the race.
Although Stanford has many men also racing, only a few are top-10 seeds in their events. Junior Blair Hurlock will compete in the 10,000 meters with an average time of 29:52:29. The Cardinal also have a strong showing in the 400-meter hurdles, sending three athletes: freshman Julian Body, junior Daniel Brady and junior Colin Dolese, who are seeded Nos. 8, 9 and 10, respectively, with only 0.3 seconds separating their seed times.
Both the men’s and women’s teams have had an exciting season in the field events. Sophomore Rachel Reichenbach’s high jump of 1.75 meters has her tied for fifth in the nation and 0.03 meters away from third coming into the competition. Junior Daryth Gayles will look to further her reach in long jump and add the 0.06 meters needed to overtake the No. 1 seed from USC. Mackenzie Little will compete in the women’s javelin, with a seed mark more than 3 meters higher than the next. And lastly, junior Jaak Uudmae is tied for the No. 1 seed in the long-jump with 7.85 meters.
The Pac-12 Championships will be streamed live on Pac-12 Networks on Saturday and Sunday.
Contact Ariana Rollins at arianar ‘at’ stanford.edu.