Card Excels in Opening Meet

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – In her first collegiate 100-meter hurdles race, Stanford junior Tess Stapleton shattered her longtime lifetime best and became the fifth-fastest in that event in school history. 

On the second day of the Hornet Invitational, Stanford’s season-opening track and field meet, Stanford athletes established 10 personal bests and earned two victories at Sacramento State’s Hornet Stadium – by Stapleton in the long jump and Kaiah Fisher in the women’s shot put. 

Stapleton took the momentum she collected during in the indoor season and brought it into her outdoor season debut, running 13.59 to place third in the hurdles. Her previous best was a wind-aided 14.10 and a wind-legal 14.37, both from her sophomore year at Fairfield Ludlowe High School in 2019. 

Stapleton began the day by winning the long jump at 19-5 ½ (5.93m), which she reached on her third jump. Teammate Teagan Zwaanstra took third at 19-1 ¼. 

Fisher, with her parents in attendance and visiting from Applegate, Oregon, uncorked her winning throw of 48-11 ½ (14.92m) in the first round of the second flight, giving her winning margin of nearly 3 ½ feet. Fisher, a junior, came in with a personal best of 46-10 ¾ (14.29m) from the indoor River Hawk Invitational in Boston on January 26 of this year. 

Stapleton and Fisher joined sophomore Julia Flynn, the women’s 3,000 winner on Friday night, as Stanford’s winners over the course of the two-day meet. 

In the women’s 100, the top three Cardinal placers all set personal bests: Alaysia Oakes (12.02), Zwaanstra (12.03), and Megan Olomu (12.05), who was celebrating her birthday. 

Maya Valmon, who ran on Stanford’s distance medley relay team at the NCAA Indoor Championships last week, ran the opening leg of the 4×400 relay on Stanford’s B team that finished sixth. The Cardinal A team of Cydney Wright, Samantha Thomas, Camille Peisner, and Sage Hinton placed second in 3:41.34. 

Next on the schedule for the Cardinal is the Stanford Invitational on March 29-30 at Cobb Track and Angell Field. 

 

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Saturday’s results

Hornet Invitational

At Hornet Stadium

Winners and all Stanford

Men

100 – 1, David Foster (Cal) 10.24; 16, Dylan Davis (Stanford) 10.76; 41, Evan Jackson (Stanford) 11.09.
400 – Shemar Palmer (Fresno Pacific) 46.98; 30, Gabriel Ajaegbu (Stanford) 49.93. 
1,500 – 1, Caden Carney (Cal) 3:49.46; 11, Caleb Boutelle (Stanford) 3:52.99; 28, Liam Anderson (Stanford) 3:59.72 (PB); 55, Galen Topper (Stanford) 4:06.28. 
400…