By Alejandro Salinas on January 29, 2019

The Cardinal broke into the record books this past weekend when the No. 11 men’s and No. 15 women’s track and field teams traveled to Seattle for the University of Washington (UW) Invitational. The two-day indoor meet was highlighted by personal bests and nation leading times.

On the men’s team, senior Alex Ostberg broke the four-minute barrier in the mile (3:59.31), becoming the 18th Cardinal to accomplish the feat and the sixth one to do it under head coach Chris Miltenberg. The two-time cross country All-American broke his personal best (4:05.74) by six seconds and now holds the fifth fastest time in the nation this year. The senior, who placed fourth, was one of seven competitors to run sub-four in the race.

Fifth-year Steven Fahy (4:03.74) and graduate student Tai Dinger (4:04.17) clocked in the 34th and 37th fastest times in the country, respectively. Sophomore DJ Principe came in at 4:04.71, while junior Alek Parsons crossed in 4:04.80.

In the men’s sprints, graduate student Isaiah Brandt-Sims broke a school record in the 60 meters after his time of 6.70 broke the late Tyrone McGraw’s mark (6.80) set in 2010. McGraw passed away from cancer at the age of 29 in 2017.

On the women’s team, fifth-year Abbie McNulty recorded a huge personal best in the 3,000 meters, taking 20 seconds off her best time to finish (9:05.66) as the top collegiate athlete in the race. McNulty now holds the top collegiate time in the country in the event.

The Cardinal also had dominant performances in the distance medley relay (DMR). The relay is made up of four legs — 1200 meters, 800 meters, 400 meters and 1600 meters. Stanford debuted the two relay teams this past weekend, both of which hope to be strong contenders at the NCAA Championships this season.

In the men’s relay, Stanford clocked in 9:29.35 for the second-fastest time in the country. The team, comprised of senior Grant Fisher and juniors Isaac Cortes, Julian Body and Hari Sathyamurthy, dominated the competition, finishing eight seconds ahead of the field for first place.

The women’s relay team, made up of junior Ella Donaghu, senior Missi Mongiovi, sophomore Carolyn Wilson and sophomore Jess Lawson, finished sixth (11:04.47). This was the first time all four athletes had competed in the event at the collegiate level.

Junior Fiona O’Keeffe highlighted the mile for the Cardinal, running 4:39.71 to finish seventh amongst NCAA collegiate athletes. Her time places her 17th in the country. Sophomore Julia Heymach clocked in 4:45.19, followed by McNulty (4:45.62) and Lawson (4:46.04), who were both running in their second event of the weekend.

In the pole vault, senior Kaitlyn Merritt and junior Erika Malaspina, who both qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships last year, cleared 4.11 and 4.01 meters, respectively. Merritt tied as the top collegiate athlete in the field and now holds the No. 2 spot on Stanford’s all-time indoor list.

In the 800 meters, sophomore Carolyn Wilson finished seventh (2:09.49), while freshman Caitlin Collier (2:10.00) finished ninth amongst collegiate athletes.

Lena Giger made her mark in the shot put, throwing 16.90 meters for the event title. Giger threw a meter further than the rest of the field, which isn’t unusual for the fifth-year, who placed third at the outdoor NCAA Championships last year.

The team will be back in action this weekend at the Frank Sevigne Husker Invite in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the Mountain T’s Invitational in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Contact Alejandro Salinas at asalinas ‘at’ stanford.edu.