In a men's and women's showdown with California Berkley on their home field, both respective Cardinal squads upstaged their opponent in the historic 122nd annual Big Meet at Edwards Stadium last Saturday.
The women led from the start, crushing Cal 114-48 to take home their sixth victory in five years; while the men rallied in the final events to win their first in four years, 86-77.
It came down to a rainy 4*400m relay for the men, where Harrison Williams was a late substitution and ended up running a personal best at 47.17s to lead off and help Stanford finish in 3:11.21s to Cal's 3:18.14s.
Williams also won the pole vault with 16', took second in the 110m high hurdles with a personal best of 14.25s, and led off the 4*100m relay. It's fair to say that the school record-holding decathlete had a busy day.
Aside from Williams, the Cardinal took all four men's jumping events, highlighted by Dartis Willis II. The fifth-year senior jumped his highest since 2011: 7' 2 ¼" in the high jump to win the event and move him into the No. 5 spot on the school's outdoor record list.
Darian Brooks, the two-time defending Pac-12 champion in the triple jump, took the event in 50' 9 ¼". In addition, he competed the long jump for the first time in two years and leaped to a winning 23' 10 ¾".
The rain almost cancelled the jumps, which in the event of that happening, could have been the difference between a Stanford victory and a Stanford defeat.
The women had no issue handling this meet.
19 events, and the women won 16 of them.
They took first (Michaela Crunkleton Wilson) and second (Gaby Gayles) in the 100m and 200m, Kristyn Williams took the 400m, Claudia Saunders won the 800m, Molly McNamara won the 1500m, Vanessa Fraser took the 3K, Hannah Labrie-Smith won the 400m hurdles, Danielle Katz won the 3K steeplechase, both Stanford women's 4*100m and 4*400m relay teams won, Kaitlyn Merritt won the pole vault, Marisa Kwiatkowski took the long jump, Lena Giger won the shot put, Valarie Allman won the discus and hammer throw, and Mackenzie Little won the javelin.
All in all, it was yet another especially dominant performance on the women's side.
The Cardinal will look to carry this momentum into its array of upcoming meets on Friday April 22nd through the following Saturday, including the Brutus Hamilton Challenge back at Berkeley and the Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco, Texas.
