Stanford track and field stole the show once again at the Big Meet this weekend at UC-Berkeley. Excelling in a number of events, the Cardinal beat out its Bay Area rivals: the men won by the score of 96-67 while the women bested the Bears, 87-76.

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Casey Roche and the Cardinal cleared a big hurdle with their second victory of the season over California. Roche came in first place in the pole vault for the Cardinal. The Stanford men topped their Berkeley counterparts by 29 team points, while the Cardinal women won by 11 over the Bears. #gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8969
Bernard Bluhm

Casey Roche and the Cardinal cleared a big hurdle with their second victory of the season over California. Roche came in first place in the pole vault for the Cardinal. The Stanford men topped their Berkeley counterparts by 29 team points, while the Cardinal women won by 11 over the Bears.

Junior Myles Bradley, who has been consistently improving for the Cardinal, finished in a close second place in the 110 hurdles with a school record-breaking time of 13.80 seconds. Cal’s Thomas Mack won the event with a time of 13.74 seconds, closely edging Bradley.

“Big Meet was a huge success this year,” Bradley said. “Whenever we win, it’s a huge success.”

Indeed, for the Cardinal, as Bradley added, the “sole purpose of Big Meet is to win; the time or distance is an added bonus.”

“My main goal was to win the short hurdles, and I placed second, so I was very disappointed,” Bradley said of his own performance. “But winning the meet made up for my loss completely.”

Another Cardinal athlete who put forth an outstanding performance was freshman Andrew Dargie, who won both the 200-meter and the 400-meter races, achieving regional qualifying standards in both events. Dargie ran a winning time of 21.31 seconds in the 200-meter event and posted a time of 46.53 seconds in the 400-meter dash.

Finishing close behind Dargie was sophomore Zach Chandy in the 200 meters, who finished in 21.55 seconds. Among the other Stanford victories in the sprints was Wopamo Osaisai’s victory in the 100-meter dash; he finished with a time of 10.60.

The Cardinal hurdling duo of sophomores Durell Coleman and J.J. Jackson had a close race in the 400-meter hurdles, placing first and second respectively. Coleman finished with a personal best time of 54.55, closely followed by Jackson at 54.99.

The Cardinal men dominated in the middle distance races; they were led by senior Michael Garcia, who won the 800 meters with a time of 1:51.18. Garcia was followed by teammate and fellow senior Jacob Evans, who finished second with a personal best time of 1:51.30. Senior Russell Brown won the 1500 meters with a time of 3:43.18, followed by junior teammate Garrett Heath, who placed third in the 1500 with a time of 3:44.61.

Junior Chris Mocko won the men’s steeplechase with a time of 9:05.15, also achieving a regional qualifying standard.

In the field events, junior Tunji Munabi took home two victories for the Cardinal, winning both the long jump and the triple jump. He had a long jump of 23-8 and a triple jump of 47-5.

Stanford swept the pole vault, taking the top three positions with marks posted by freshman Casey Roche, senior Graeme Hoste and senior Benjamin Dickens. While Roche and Hoste had already achieved regional qualifying standards at previous meets, Dickens made his mark this weekend, also guaranteeing himself a spot for nationals.

The only male event winner in the throws was senior Kyle Davis-Hammerquist, who has been consistently winning the hammer throw at outdoor meets. This weekend, he won with a toss of 192-1. Sophomore Carter Wells finished in second place with a personal best throw of 186-4.

The women were led by NCAA indoor triple jump champion senior Erica McLain, who won both the triple jump and the long jump. McLain achieved a triple jump mark of 45-3 and won the long jump with a leap of 20-10.5. Freshman Arantxa King finished in second place for both events, with a long jump of 19-9.5, earning her regional mark. King’s triple jump mark was a distance of 41-0.5, just short of a regional standard.

The female throwers displayed the strength of the Stanford throwing program, winning every single throwing event. Junior Michaela Wallerstedt won the discus with a regional qualifying mark of 156-6. Sophomore Jaynie Goodbody won in the hammer throw with a toss of 187-11, senior Danielle Maier in the javelin with a throw of 163-2, and senior Melissa Yunghans in the shot put with a heave of 48-10.25.

In the long distance races, senior Lauren Centrowitz earned two event titles, winning the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:26.60, and the 3,000 with a time of 9:46.84. In the 1500, junior Alicia Follmar, freshman Maddie Duhon sophomore and Kate Niehaus followed in second, third and fourth place, respectively. A similar trend occurred in the 3,000 meter run, with freshman Alex Gits, Niehaus and senior Lindsay Allen following Centrowitz, clearly exhibiting the Cardinal women’s strength in the distance races.

In the 3000-meter steeplechase, Stanford placed in first and third place, also achieving regional standards. Allen won the event with a time of 10:24.95 while junior Katie Harrington finished in third with a time of 10:37.78.

After demolishing Cal, the Cardinal returns to action this weekend for the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Stanford will also send athletes to the Woody Wilson Invitational in Davis, Calif., on Saturday, Apr. 19.