In the first outdoor meet of the season for the Stanford track and field team, it was the field events that stole the show.

In the annual Quad meet at UC-Davis, freshman Casey Roche led the team with his regional qualifying mark in the men's pole vault, winning the event with a mark of 16-07 3/4.

"It gives me confidence to win my first collegiate outdoor meet," Roche said.

Senior teammate Mike Macellari also turned in a great performance with a regional qualifying throw of 55-11 3/4 in the men's shot put, finishing first in the event. Macellari also placed second in the discus throw. The senior came into this weekend a little disappointed after a poor performance at last weekend's MPSF championships; he had originally planned not to compete in the shot put this weekend. However, Macellari attributed his success to Davis's very nice shot ring.

The women's field events were also successful in dominating the meet. Sophomore Caitlin Hewitt won the pole vault, junior Michaela Wallerstedt won the discus throw and senior Melissa Yunghans won the shot put.

Stanford saw victory in the running events after efforts from senior Michael Garcia in the 800-meter run and senior Lindsay Allen in the women's 1500-meter run.

Three Stanford athletes also traveled once again to Seattle to compete in the University of Washington Last Chance Meet - one last chance to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships taking place this weekend. Freshman Andrew Dargie improved his NCAA provisional time in the 400 meters to 46.95 seconds.

This weekend, the Cardinal prepares to take on the best collegiate track and field athletes in the nation when it competes in the Indoor NCAA Championships. Both the men and women's squads are ranked No. 6 in the country entering the meet.

Some events to watch closely will be the men's mile, as Stanford junior Garrett Heath will attempt to improve on his fourth place finish from last year. He currently has the third fastest time in the nation. The top three milers are all within a few milliseconds of each other, promising an exciting race.

The men's distance medley relay of junior Hakon DeVries, Dargie, senior Jacob Evans and Heath enters the competition ranked third in the nation behind Texas and Arkansas. Texas set a new world record earlier this year with a time of 9:25.97, and the Stanford relay ran 9:31.52 last weekend.

"The good thing is that there is room for improvement," Dargie said.

The Cardinal is the defending national champions in the distance medley relay, although only Heath returns from last year's squad.

"It would really show the program's strength and dominance in middle distances [if we won again]," said DeVries.

Senior Graeme Hoste, fresh off breaking the school record in the pole vault, comes in ranked second in the nation. Senior Josh Hustedt, fourth at last year's Indoor Nationals in the heptathlon, will look to improve this year. Hustedt enters the meet ranked fifth in the nation.

The Stanford women will be led by senior Arianna Lambie, ranked No. 1 in the nation for the 3000-meter run. Lambie is also a member of the women's distance medley relay, currently ranked fourth. Other members of the relay team are senior Lauren Centrowitz, junior Idara Otu and junior Alicia Follmar. Senior Erica McLain enters ranked second in the nation in triple jump, trailing first by a mere one one-hundredth of a meter. McLain is the defending NCAA Indoor champion in the event and will also compete in the long jump.

The NCAA Indoor Championships will take place this Friday and Saturday, March 14-15, in Fayetteville, Ark.