Two Medalists, Four Top-10s – Stanford University Athletics

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Former Stanford roommates Valarie Allman ’17 and Mackenzie Little ’19 each medaled at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which concluded Sunday.
Allman earned her second World medal in the discus and Little earned bronze in the javelin. 

They were among six Stanford alums – four women and two men – competing at Worlds and representing three countries. All had previous World Championships experience, and they combined for four top-10 finishes. 

Allman now has a medal of each shade over the past three global championships – Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, World bronze in Eugene in 2022, and now silver in Budapest. 

In the discus final, Allman moved to the front on her first throw, which traveled 224-11 (68.57 meters). She then extended her lead on her third (225-8, 68.79) and fourth (227-1, 69.23) throws. However, in the fifth round, U.S. teammate Laulauga Tausaga unleashed a lifetime best of 228-0 (69.49) for a lead she would not relinquish. 

Allman finished with four of the six farthest throws of the competition.

Little, of Australia, led her qualifying group and was in medal contention from her first throw of the final, which placed her fourth after the first round. Little remained outside the top three until her sixth and final throw, of 207-11 (63.38), which allowed the two-time NCAA champion to earn her first senior global medal. 

 

Harrison Williams. Photo by Kirby Lee/Image of Sport.

Harrison Williams ’18 struggled at times, but excelled at others in scoring 8,500 points to place seventh in the decathlon. Williams got off to a rocky start in the 100 and said on social media that the race affected his next few events as he sought to gain back points. But he got back on track in earnest when he closed the first day with a 46.52 in the 400 – the second-best time of the day.

Williams won the pole vault with a personal decathlon-best 17-4 ½ (5.30) for 1,004 points and climbed into fifth place. Though he wasn’t able to maintain that spot, he finished with a massive lifetime best in the 1,500 of 4:22.69 to move into seventh to close the competition. 

Elise Cranny ’18 and Sean McGorty ’17 each competed in the 5,000 and 10,000 for the U.S. Cranny placed ninth in the 5,000, matching her best global placing (from the same event in 2022) and was 12th in the 10,000. McGorty placed 16th in the 10,000 final, but did not advance to the 5,000 final.

Katerina Stefanidi ’12, the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World pole vault…