The Stanford track and field team was successful this past weekend, competing at two separate meets. Three Stanford multi-event athletes competed in the Cal Multis in Berkeley, Calif., while the rest of the team was at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday and Sunday.

On Thursday, the second and final day of the Cal Multi Event meet, freshman Whitney Liehr placed second in the heptathlon with a score of 4,947 points. Sophomore Kara Bennett finished fourth with 4,523 points. Representing the men in the decathlon, freshman Corey Dysick finished in third place with 6,345 points. Liehr said this was her “first collegiate heptathlon,” and she was “pleased with the overall performance.”

Immediately following the Cal Multis, Stanford hosted its biggest meet of the year, the Stanford Invitational, where some of the best collegiate and high school runners in the nation gathered for a weekend of competition.

The Cardinal men were led by junior hurdler Myles Bradley, who ran a personal best as well as an NCAA regional qualifying time of 13.96 seconds in the 110 hurdles in the prelims, to enter finals seeded first. His time also moved him into second place all-time at Stanford in the event. However, the next day in the finals, Bradley was closely edged out for first by Timothy Bogdanof (who ran unattached) in one of the most exciting races of the day.

Also in the sprints, senior Wopamo Osaisai achieved an NCAA regional qualifying time in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.51 seconds. Osaisai is the Stanford record-holder in the event and was slightly off his best time of 10.39 seconds, set in 2005.

Three Stanford men achieved regional qualifying times in the 800-meter run. Senior Russell Brown finished third overall with a time of 1:48.66, closely followed by senior Michael Garcia, who finished fourth with a time of 1:49.18. Junior Garrett Heath, an outstanding miler for the Cardinal, finished eighth with a personal best time of 1:49.70. All three men qualifed for NCAA regionals in the event.

On day two of the meet, Brown came back to provide an amazing performance in the 1500 meters, beating Stanford record-holder and 2000 Olympian Michael Stember to win the event, easily achieving a regional mark with his time of 3:42.58. “[I was] ecstatic about how this weekend went, as my goals this year are about places not times,” Brown said.

“Obviously, beating Stember was special,” he continued. “However, the fact is, he is just beginning to get into shape, and I didn’t beat him at his best. If I can get him by the end of this year, then I will have accomplished something really special. More than anything, though, I’d like to see the two of us running well at the same time, because he has been a hero of mine for a long time.”

Senior Jacob Evans also achieved a regional mark in the 1500 with a personal best time of 3:46.76. Junior Hakon DeVries barely missed the regional standard, running a 3:46.63, despite running the last part of the race with only one shoe, after losing his other to a competitor who stepped on his foot.

In the field events, senior Graeme Hoste won one section of the pole vault, improving his regional mark to 17-0 3/4, while freshman Casey Roche won the other section of the event with a mark of 16-6 3/4. Senior Kyle Davis-Hammerquist also had a personal best in the discus with a throw of 163-08. In the shot put, senior Mike Macellari earned a regional qualifying standard with a toss of 56-1.

For the women, senior Dani Maier not only achieved a regional mark and won the javelin throw, but she also broke her own school record with a throw of 174-00. Also in the field events, junior Lauren Stewart won the meet title in the high jump with a regional mark of 5-8 3/4. Sophomore Jaynie Goodbody also earned a regional qualifying mark in the hammer throw with a personal best of 193-6.

The female runners had several strong showings, led by senior Lauren Centrowitz and junior Alicia Follmar in the 800 meters. Both ladies earned regional qualifying marks in the event. They doubled back on day two of the meet to place third and fifth, respectively, in the 1500-meter run, both earning regional qualifying marks. Other regional marks in the distances came from senior Lindsay Allen and sophomore Kate Niehaus in the 5,000-meter run.

Stanford will run next at the Big Meet this coming weekend at Cal as it hopes to earn Bay Area track and field bragging rights.