EVERYBODY’S AN ALL-AMERICAN
Stanford goes 12 for 12 in indoor track championships
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Erik Olson placed seventh in the men’s 3,000 meters to enable Stanford to reach a notable achievement: All 12 of its athletes earned first-team All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, which concluded Saturday.
After combining for only seven points in last year’s meet, Stanford’s men and women combined for 40 this time. The Cardinal women tied for seventh place with 24 points and the men were 12th with 16. The finishes exceeded their rankings coming into the meet of 14th and 16th, respectively.
The placing and points were the highest for the women since 2008 (5th, 32), and the combined points were the most since Stanford scored 55, also in 2008.
Stanford was involved in only two events on Day Two of the meet at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Olson, a Bay Area native out of Novato High, earned his first collegiate first-team All-America honor, which is awarded to the top eight in each event. Olson, a senior, used a strong finish to reach the podium, clocking 8:14.77.
In the women’s 3,000, Aisling Cuffe placed seventh in 9:17.87 and Kathy Kroeger was 12th in 9:27.53. It was the second first-team honor of the meet for Cuffe, who was second in the 5,000 on Friday. Kroeger was third in Friday’s 5K, received a second-team honor for the 3,000, which was the final race in the collegiate career of the fifth-year senior.
Kroeger, the 2012 Pac-12 cross country champion, totaled 11 All-America honors, including cross country, and indoor and outdoor track. Only three others in the history of Stanford women’s track and field and cross country have more: Lauren Fleshman (1999-2003) with 15, Erica McLain (2005-08) with 14, and Arianna Lambie (2003-08) with 13.
On Friday, Stanford won the men’s distance medley relay, was second in the women’s DMR, and got a fifth-place in the men’s 5,000 from Joe Rosa, in addition to Cuffe and Kroeger in the women’s 5K.
Details on the races and comments from coaches and athletes will be posted later on gostanford.com.
For more information, contact:
David Kiefer
Assistant Athletic Communications Director
Stanford University
dkiefer@stanford.edu
(650) 759-0258, cell
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