After two days of competing against the top athletes of the West Coast at the NCAA West Regional in Eugene, Ore., the Stanford men’s and women’s track and field teams will send a combined 16 athletes with automatic bids to the NCAA Championships, set to be held June 6-9 at Sacramento State.

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Juniors Lauren Centrowitz (second from left) and Arianna Lambie (far right) will pose a formidable challenge in the 1,500-meter competition at the upcoming NCAA Championships. Lambie won the event at last weekend’s West Regional, with Centrowitz trailing in third just seconds behind. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/7607
Bernard Bluhm

Juniors Lauren Centrowitz (second from left) and Arianna Lambie (far right) will pose a formidable challenge in the 1,500-meter competition at the upcoming NCAA Championships. Lambie won the event at last weekend’s West Regional, with Centrowitz trailing in third just seconds behind.

The Stanford women clinched the fourth-place position at the West Regional, earning a total of 60 points overall, while the Cardinal men scored 43.5 points to conclude the tournament in seventh.

“Sixteen is a nice number,” head coach Edrick Floreal said of Stanford’s automatic NCAA bids. “We still have a handful of people under consideration, but we won’t know until later if they were chosen to participate. I am definitely pleased with the whole way that the team competed for the NCAAs. I think that we did really well.”

The Cardinal concluded day one with the women tied for third with 20 points and the men in fourth with 15.5 points. In the end, though, the Arizona State’s women’s squad (with 94 points) and Southern California’s men’s team (with 83 points) took home the two NCAA Regional titles.

The men’s track team will send eight athletes to represent Stanford next week in the NCAA Championships. After one day of competition at the West Regional, four of the top male competitors had received an automatic bid to the championships. Junior Graeme Hoste rocketed over a bar set at a height of 17 feet, 5 inches (5.31 meters) earning the fourth-place spot in the pole vault. Continuing the Cardinal’s run for the championships was senior Jacob Gomez, who took third place with a time of 14:11.82 in the 5000-meter race. Sophomore Hari Mix kept his teammate on his toes by finishing fourth, less than a full second behind Gomez, with a time of 14:12.16. Rounding out a successful day one for the men was senior Michael Robertson, who threw the discus a distance of 193 feet, 2 inches (58.89 m) to earn a fifth-place finish.

The Cardinal men also found success in the events of day two, adding four more names to its NCAA roster. Junior Michael Garcia found himself in fifth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:50.9. The dynamic duo of junior Russell Brown and sophomore Garrett Heath took second and third place in the 1500 meters with times of 3:44.39 and 3:46.15, respectively. Senior Feranmi Okanlami launched himself across the triple jump pit for a personal season-best 50 feet, 7 1/4 inches (15.42 m) and his own NCAA bid as well.

The women’s team also enjoyed a successful weekend and will be well-represented in Sacramento with eight bids. In the running events, the most notable story was that of junior Teresa McWalters, who snagged the 5000-meter run title with her personal-best time of 16:04.92. Junior Arianna Lambie took first in the 1500 meters in her usual dominating style, running a personal season-best time of 4:14.05. Junior Lauren Centrowitz kept the competition in check with Lambie and clocked in for third place (4:21.52) in the same event.

Senior Janice Davis squeezed in fifth place in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11:56. Rounding out the women’s running events, junior Lindsay Allen notched fifth place in the steeplechase with a time of 10:14.46, putting her at third on Stanford’s all-time top-10 list for the event.

In the women’s field events, junior Erica McLain took second in the long jump with a distance of 20 feet, 10 inches (6.35 m). McLain also qualified to compete in the triple jump when she seized the regional triple-jump title by propelling herself a distance of 44 feet, 8 inches (13.61 m). In the women’s shot put, sophomore Michaela Wallerstedt hit a season best for herself with a throw of 48 feet, 4 3/4 inches (14.75 m).

“Many of our athletes just shined the most in this competition.” Floreal said. “The people that did the best, like Arianna, Russell and Teresa McWalters, among others, had huge performances. All around though, we did have a couple surprises, like Feranmi Okanlami, who really put out his best effort to qualify in the triple jump.”

The NCAA Championship committee will select six to eight more participants who did not rank in the top five of their events during the regional meets. These athletes will fill the extra slots in the 26-28 person NCAA Championship fields. The names of these athletes will be announced this afternoon.

“NCAAs are a lot tougher than Regionals.” Floreal said. “People are gradually eliminated each week until all that is left is the people that are the cream of the crop. Everyone does well in their events.

“For many athletes, regionals was the most dangerous because they don’t want to mess up their bodies before the championships,” he continued. “Many just want to do well enough to qualify so that they stay fit and healthy. We have a sizeable turn out, and we definitely have a chance to score some points in the NCAA Championships next week.”