April 22, 2008

Stanford, CA (UWIRE) -- A small contingent of Stanford track and field athletes traveled to Walnut, Calif. this weekend to compete at the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays on Friday and Saturday.

The meet was held at the Mount San Antonio College Track, the home of two Olympic Trials and 13 world records. Most of the Cardinal athletes that competed were in the field events, with two runners competing in the distance races.

The meet proved to be fruitful - several Stanford athletes achieved personal best and season best marks in their respective events.

The women were led by junior Tessa Flippin, who won the high jump with a season best leap of 5-6. With a personal best for Stanford was sophomore Caitlin Hewitt who finished second in the pole vault, with a regional standard vault of 12-7.5. Also leading the women, was junior Michaela Wallerstedt, who set a personal best in the discus with a throw of 162-9, improving her regional mark and moving her into seventh on the Pac-10 list.

In the heptathlon competition for the women, junior Lauren Stewart placed eighth with a career best score of 5,262 points. The score was also a national provisional standard. Stewart's strongest event out of the seven was the 100 meter hurdles, which she ran in a time of 14.31 seconds.

The men were led by senior Mike Macellari, who achieved a personal best in the discus with a throw of 174-0. Macellari also won the shot put with a throw of 54-3.25. When asked about his performance, however, Macellari said he was disappointed.

"This weekend's shot put was not really a high point in my career," he remarked. "There were two sections of collegiate shot putters. While I won my section, it was the weaker of the two and this was my second-to-worst shot put performance of the year.

"I had an excellent week of practice in the shot put this last week," he continued. "It just hasn't come together yet for a big throw in the meet. I have another week to work on it and am looking to throw a personal best in the shot next weekend at the Brutus Hamilton meet in Cal."

One of Stanford runners at the meet, junior Hari Mix, had an amazing performance, running a personal best and regional qualifying time of 13:56.28 in the 5,000 meter run.

The Cardinal also sent a few competitors to the California Invitational Heptathlon. Freshman Whitney Liehr finished in third place with a personal best and national provisional standard score of 5,126 points. For the men, freshman Corey Dysick finished in fifth place with 6,310 points - an amazing performance the second day of the meet to move all the way from the 18th to fifth place.

The Cardinal will be back in action this coming weekend at Cal for the annual Brutus Hamilton meet.

(C) 2008 The Stanford Daily via UWIRE