The Stanford men’s and women’s Track and Field teams are set to leave for Seattle, Wash. early Thursday morning, as they hope to astound the Pacific Northwest with stellar performances at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships. The meet at Dempsey Indoor Track is the last meet before nationals, offering a final chance for several athletes to qualify for competition at the next level.

Several Stanford athletes enter the competition highly ranked in their events. Redshirt senior Arianna Lambie has the fastest time in the women’s 3000 meter run in the nation. Lambie will also be competing in the mile, where she is ranked second in the MPSF field. Lambie said she hopes to improve her mile time from last week’s mark of 4:38 and score well in both of her events.

“It’s my second-to-last competition in Stanford uniform, so I’ve got to make it count,” Lambie said.

Sophomore Griffin Matthew sits atop the rankings for the women’s 60 meter dash, ahead of Cal’s Cherrelle Garrett and ASU’s Charonda Williams by a mere hundredth of a second. Freshman Alexandra Gits holds the top position in the women’s 5000 meter run, and Stanford also possesses the top spot in the women’s distance medley relay. In the jumping arena, senior Erica McLain holds the number one position in the women’s long jump, closely followed by freshman teammate Arantxa King. The duo of female jumpers dominates the rankings in the triple jump as well, as McLain and King hold the first and second positions respectively.

On the men’s side, the Cardinal holds notable positions in numerous events. Junior Myles Bradley has the number one spot in the men’s 60 meter hurdles, with a time of 7.90 seconds. In the mile, freshman Garrett Heath, who had an incredible performance two weeks ago on the same indoor track at which he will compete this weekend, will race hard to retain his first place position at the MPSF meet. Heath is currently ranked second in the nation in the event.

Speaking of the team as a whole, Heath said, “Our team is using this meet as another opportunity to try and get a lot of individual qualifiers for indoor nationals in two weeks,” Heath said. “We have a lot of people right on the brink of making it at this point, so putting together a strong performance this weekend at [the MPSF Championships] will put us in a great position to do well as team in nationals.”

Heath exemplifies the spirit of the Cardinal, focusing on individual successes that bolster the team. Personally, he hopes to focus on the distance medley relay, as three of the runners on the relay team are seniors hoping to have a successful final run together. That relay team, hoping to qualify for nationals, is currently ranked second in the MPSF meet.

Senior pole vaulter Graeme Hoste enters the meet in a first place position for the event.

“[My] first goal is to win [the event],” Hoste said. “But I’m going to go out there and focus on the few things we’ve been working on technically and try to have some fun. Hopefully that will lead to a good performance.”

Following the MPSF Championships the Cardinal will have some breathing room before the UW Last Chance Meet on March 8 and the NCAA Championships in Fayatteville, Ark., which begin March 14.