The Cardinal, featuring sprinters, jumpers, and throwers, won eight events at the Spokane Indoor Challenge at The Podium. And at the UW Indoor Preview on the University of Washington campus in Seattle, the Cardinal middle and long distance runners won four more.
But victories, bests, and even the 11 improvements and additions to Stanford’s all-time indoor top-10 lists, do not quite illustrate the spectacle of a few events – Juliette Whittaker’s stunning collegiate debut and Stanford’s cavalcade of sub-4 milers.
Whittaker, the national high school outdoor record holder in the 800 meters, opened her collegiate career by breaking the Stanford record in that event and then anchoring the Cardinal to victory in the 4×400 relay. Whittaker ran 2:02.48 to break the 800 meet record on Dempsey Indoor’s 307-meter flat track, and Justine Fedronic’s 2014 school indoor record of 2:03.25. But because Whittaker’s was run on an oversized track, Fedronic, a 2016 Olympian, continues to hold the Stanford record on a standard 200-meter track.
Juliette Whittaker. Photo by Bob Drebin/ISIphotos.com.
Stanford’ other school record was broken on Friday night in Spokane when Max McKhann barely exceeded his own Stanford mark in the 35-pound weight throw. McKhann went 71-11 (21.92 meters) on his sixth and final throw to edge his 2022 record of 71-10 ¾ (21.91).
In the invitational mile in Seattle, Ky Robinson continued his scintillating indoor season by leading four Stanford runners to their first sub-4 times. Robinson won in 3:55.87, with Cole Sprout second in 3:56.53, Thomas Boyden third in 3:57.06, and John Lester sixth in 3:58.88. Stanford hadn’t had a sub-4 miler since Alex Ostberg in 2019.
Including indoors and outdoors, Stanford now has 22 different sub-4 milers. Sprout, Boyden, and Lester are among 668 Americans in the sub-4 club that was created by Cal’s Don Bowden, who became the first American to break the barrier, on June 1, 1957, in Stockton.
Robinson, an Australian, now has the world and collegiate leading times in two events this season: the mile and 5,000, having run 13:11.53 on December 3, 2022, in Boston.
Robinson, Sprout, Boyden, and Lester rank Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 12 on Stanford’s all-time indoor mile list. None had broken four minutes…
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