Stanford Hosts 119th Big Meet on Saturday

Cardinal and Cal continue dual-meet rivalry




Kathy Kroeger is a three-time first-team outdoor All-America.



Program | Schedule


April 18, 2013

STANFORD, Calif. - One of the great track and field traditions in the country continues on Saturday with the 119th track and field dual meet between Stanford and California. The meet will be held at Stanford's Cobb Track and Angell Field, beginning with the women's hammer throw at 10:15 a.m., and with running events at 1 p.m. This is the only dual meet on the schedule for either team, and extends a tradition that began in 1893. Cal leads the men's series, 66-50-2, but Stanford has won the past six. For the women, Stanford leads the series, 20-11, and has won the past two.

Watch for:
Kori Carter
Career best times:
100 hurdles: 12.99
400 hurdles: 54.71

In her most recent meet, at the Jim Click Shootout in Tucson, Ariz., on April 6, Carter broke her own school record by running 54.71 in the 400-meter hurdles. It remains the fastest time in the world this year, and she achieved it by outrunning Arizona's Georganne Moline, who finished fifth in the 2012 Olympics. Carter is expected to run both hurdle races - she is the school record holder in each - and the 4x100. Carter is a seven-time All-America and the defending Pac-12 champ in the 100 hurdles. After her performance in Tucson, Carter was placed on the watch list for the Bowerman Trophy, collegiate track and field's version of the Heisman.

Steven Solomon
Career best time:
400 meters: 44.97

Solomon is the only freshman on any collegiate team in the country who can claim to be an Olympic finalist. Solomon, a 19-year-old Australian, is making his collegiate debut at the Big Meet where he is scheduled to run the 400 and the 4x400 relay. Solomon ran a personal record 44.97 in the Olympic semifinals in London to qualify seventh. He finished eighth at London, in 45.14. Solomon is a two-time Australian national champion and will compete at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow in August.

Stanford's All-Americans
• Stanford boasts 20 All-Americans among their combined men's and women's teams, including indoor and outdoor track, and cross country (11 women, nine men).
• Stanford has 10 first-team track All-Americans (six men, four women).
• The women's athlete with the most All-America honors is distance runner Kathy Kroeger, with nine. Kroeger has nine first-team honors, another team high.
• Men's athletes with the most such honors are middle distance runners Michael Atchoo and Dylan Ferris, with three apiece. Atchoo leads the men with three first-team honors, all indoor.
• Four Stanford women, but no men, have earned first-team outdoor All-America honors: Brianna Bain (javelin, 2012), Karynn Dunn (long jump, 2012), Kathy Kroeger (5,000, 2010-12), and Katie Nelms (100 hurdles, 2012).
• Two Stanford men have earned outdoor All-America honors: Dylan Ferris (1,500, 2010, 2nd team) and Spencer Chase (4x400, 2011, honorable mention).

Top 10
These Stanford athletes are among the Top 10 outdoors nationally this season:

Men:
Erik Olson, 10,000 meters (29:08.32), ninth
Women
Kori Carter, 400 hurdles (54.71), first
Justine Fedronic, 800 (2:03.93), third
Amy Weissenbach, 1,500 (4:17.40), sixth

These Cal athletes are among the national outdoor Top 10:

Men
Ray Stewart, 110 hurdles (13.67w), ninth
Hammed Suleman, triple jump (53-4½), second
Women
Kelsey Santisteban, 5,000 (15:52.06), eighth

The First
This is the 119th Big Meet, but it's been 120 years since the first. The men's-only meet (the schools wouldn't hold their first women's matchup until 1980) took place on April 22, 1893 at the Olympic Club Grounds in San Francisco. Cal won 10 of the 14 events and swept five events while earning a 91-35 victory. Stanford had no coach and swept only one event - the two-mile bicycle race. Though the meet was held annually, Stanford didn't win until the 11th edition, in 1903.







Courtesy Stanford