After enjoying a week’s rest from the NCAA Regional qualifying meet, the Stanford track and field teams are finished with the first round of preliminary events at the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif.

Having concluded one day of competition in Hornet Stadium, Stanford’s 11 men and nine women are keeping their hopes high to conclude this Saturday’s final events with the NCAA crown.

And if the smiling faces of head coach Edrick Floreal and the rest of the Cardinal were any sign, yesterday was a good start.

“I’m in a room full of joyful people,” Floreal said in a phone interview. “Once you qualify for NCAAs, you just have to focus on qualifying for finals. This is our big game; it’s like the final four. We had a great day.”

Yesterday’s results demonstrated that the ninth-seeded Cardinal women haven’t lightened up the workload since their fourth-place performance at the NCAA West Regional and their second-place finish at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships.

Junior Erica McLain was the only Cardinal competitor to qualify for two championship events. She will enter the triple jump as the top seed with a distance of 46-5 1/4 (14.15 meters) and she is ranked No. 14 in the long jump. McLain’s 6.27-meter preliminary jump, though, already put her ahead in eighth place as of yesterday.

Another top competitor to watch for the Stanford women is junior Arianna Lambie, the NCAA Division I West District Women’s Track Athlete of the Year. Lambie qualified as the second seed for the 1,500 meters on a 4:14.05 record.

Junior Lauren Centrowitz is just four seconds shy of that and will also represent the Cardinal in the 1,500; she is No. 18 nationally with a 4:19.76 time. Just on Centrowitz’s heels is sophomore Alicia Follmar, ranked 19th in the event, having posted a 4:20.19.

“I am really inspired and happy with our team after the first day of events.” Lambie said. “Since there are three of us going into tomorrow’s 1500, our goal is for all three of us to qualify for the finals. I feel confident that I will qualify, but I am excited to see the result of the competition.”

The Cardinal also brings three women sprinters to the NCAAs. Seniors Jakki Bailey and Janice Davis entered the 100-meter race as the Nos. 20 and 29 seeds, respectively, but proved true top competitors after yesterday’s preliminary heats as Davis came in fourth (11.50) and Bailey came in seventh (11.61). The marks are enough to qualify them for the semifinals as Nos. 17 and 22, respectively.

Meanwhile, senior Ashley Freeman entered yesterday’s 800 meters ranked 21st, but managed to qualify for the semifinals in 16th with a time of 2:07.23.

The long-distance runners also had their work cut out for them yesterday. Junior Teresa McWalters challenged the best in the nation as the ninth seed, but concluded day one in seventh, posting a 16:05.92. Junior Lindsay Allen, the No. 17 seed, also qualified for the grueling 3,000-meter steeplechase on an 11th-place time of 10:01.53.

The Stanford men, as a whole unseeded, also earned some of the top seeds in their events yesterday.

Senior Michael Robertson and junior Daniel Schaerer entered the discus throw in the third and 11th seeds. After taking second (60.71 meters) in yesterday’s preliminary qualifier, Robertson will advance, while Shaerer came up just short of qualifying on a distance of 55.14 meters (17th place). Also in the field events is junior Graeme Hoste, who is ranked 12th in the pole vault and will advance on a tie for second (15.15 meters) yesterday. Senior co-captain Feranmi Okanlami will compete in the 26th spot in the triple jump with his distance of 50-07 1/4 (15.42m).

The men have doubled up in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter races, looking to score some extra points for the Cardinal.

Junior Russel Brown and sophomore Garrett Heath are ranked ninth and 22nd, respectively, with times only two seconds apart (3:41.51 and 3:43.01) in the 1,500. Senior Jacob Gomez and sophomore Hari Mix, on the other hand, tag-teamed yesterday’s 5,000 competition and qualified for the final on times of 13:58.06 (14th place) and 14:00.01 (16th place), respectively.

Seeded at No. 25, junior Michael Garcia sprinted for the Cardinal in the 800-meter preliminary and qualified for semi-finals in 19th (1:49.62).

Senior Brett Gotcher is right on pace as the 15th seed, having qualified for the 10,000 meters with a 28:51.65 time. Lastly, junior Josh Hustedt will compete in the decathlon; Hustedt has a season-best score of 7,286 points.

Both the women’s and the men’s teams have high expectations for this week, but no matter the outcome of the NCAA Championships, the Cardinal already has much to celebrate. On top of a terrific season, Stanford had 23 men and 24 women selected to the Pac-10 All-Academic teams, with six women and 11 men on the first and second teams.

Tomorrow, the Cardinal will face another long day of preliminaries, en route to the final rounds of the championships.

“There is a lot of pressure going into tomorrow,” Floreal said. “Since we are at the championships, we are competing with the best of the best in the nation, but we had a great day and I look forward to seeing what the team will do tomorrow. With almost everyone qualifying for the finals after the first day, what more can I ask for?”