This weekend the Cardinal will compete at the NCAA West Regional meet at Cal State-Northridge. The regional meet acts as a qualifier for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June. From each event, the top five individuals will proceed to the next level, along with the top three relays.

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Jeff Keacher

The Cardinal men and women are ranked tenth and 45th in the nation, respectively, and will face difficult competition this week

Events that will not be contested this weekend include the 10,000 meter run, the decathlon and the heptathlon. In the 10,000 meter run, freshman Alex Gits has already achieved the automatic qualifying standard, as has junior Hari Mix of the men’s team. Senior Josh Hustedt has a provisional standard in the decathlon, while among the women junior Lauren Stewart and freshman Whitney Liehr have provisional standards in the heptathlon.

Stanford enters the meet with the women ranked tenth nationally and the men ranked 45th. Twenty men and 19 women will represent the Cardinal at the West Regional, all in a variety of events.

“We’re excited to bring a large group of regional qualifiers to Northridge. Top five, that’s the goal for everyone. Our coach, coach Floreal, said, ‘There is no difference between fifth and first this weekend, they both get you to the same place,’ so that’s the mission,” said junior captain Myles Bradley.

Another important achievement for the track and field team this week came in the form of an award for senior and team co-captain Russell Brown. Brown was awarded the spring Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, winning it with his 3.44 GPA as a Political Science major, fourth place at Pac-10 Championships in the 1,500 meters and his overall leadership and commitment to the team.

In response to the meet, Brown said, “All I can say about Regionals is that despite it being just a qualifier, it is one of the best predictors of NCAAs. Treating it like an important competition that you are trying to win helps prepare you for the even bigger event right around the corner.

“In light of that, we are sending a huge team this year and expect to do extremely well. Especially on the distance side, we only had a few guys perform how they are capable of at Pac-10s, so Regionals is the opportunity to prove to ourselves that we are national class competitors.”

Brown will join the rest of his teammates in the much cooler climate this weekend as opposed to the heat which pervaded Arizona at the Pac-10 Championship. The athletes look to exert the least amount of energy to achieve top five positions while qualifying for NCAA Championships.