Stanford Track: Youth Shines in Peru

The collegiate season is long gone but that hasn’t stopped Stanford Cardinal athletes from setting out to make a name for themselves on a major stage.

Taking on the best of the best in their age group, two incoming Stanford freshmen, Ashlan Best and Liam Christensen, faced off against national competition as they represented their respective flags in Peru at the Pan Am Junior Championships this past Saturday.

The Ontario native, Best took gold for Canada in the 200m with a blazing time of 23.27s, an improvement on her career best.

Christensen left with a bronze medal in the men’s javelin, throwing 220’ 8” (67.25m) to a Western Hemisphere-best finish.

Recruited out of South Carolina—a state with no high school javelin—Christensen is accustomed to elevating his game in these warm summer months of July and August. He has won six national titles, including two at the Junior Olympics, two at New Balance Outdoor Nationals, one at the 2015 US World Youth Trials, and another just this past month at the USA Junior Championships.

The next date to mark down in your calendars will be August 11^th when rising fifth-year senior Valarie Allman dons the red, white, and blue for Stanford over in London at the IAAF World Championships. She paved her way by earning third at the US Championships in the discus last month.

Also representing the Cardinal will be alumna and reigning Olympic pole vault champion Katerina Stefanidi ’12 (Greece) and third ranked 400m hurdler Kori Carter ’14 (USA).