For only the second time, the Cardinal earned two podium (top four) team finishes at the NCAA championships and won at least five individual titles.
That combination occurred only once before, in 2000, when the Cardinal men were first outdoors and second indoors, and the Stanford men and women combined to win six individual titles in the indoor and outdoor meets.
This year, the Stanford men were third at the NCAA Championships, their highest finish at the outdoor meet since 2000, and the Cardinal women were fourth indoors. The five individual titles came from the women indoors in the distance medley relay and by freshman Roisin Willis in the 800 meters, and from the men outdoors with Ky Robinson’s sweep of the 5,000 and 10,000 and by Udodi Onwuzurike in the 200.
Stanford’s third place, under fourth-year Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field/Cross Country J.J. Clark, was accomplished with only five athletes. And all the scoring was done by three of them – Robinson, Onwuzurike, and distance runner Charles Hicks. The last time any men’s team finished on the NCAA outdoor podium with three or fewer scorers was 1997 by UCLA.
Robinson, a junior, was named among 10 semifinalists for The Bowerman, collegiate track and field’s highest individual award. The Australian was the first to win both the 5,000 and 10,000 at NCAA’s outdoors since Edward “King Ches” Cheserek of Oregon in 2016.
The Stanford freshmen women were spectacular. Alyssa Jones broke the American under-20 record in the long jump, and the Pac-12 record, while finishing second at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Willis was named the West Region Women’s Indoor Track Athlete of the Year. And Juliette Whittaker anchored the DMR team to the NCAA title, won the Pac-12 800 title, and was named Pac-12 Women’s Freshman of the Year.
Stanford athletes broke or tied school records 31 times over the indoor and outdoor seasons. The indoor season featured 22 such performances and the outdoors nine. Among them were some of the finest marks in collegiate history.
Onwuzurike’s 19.76 on June 7 in the NCAA semifinals was the third-fastest 200 in collegiate history, a Pac-12 record, and the second-fastest in the world this year. His 9.92 in the Pac-12 Championships semifinals placed him No. 9 on the all-time collegiate performers’ list in the 100. And his 20.17 at the NCAA indoor semifinals was the seventh-fastest…
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