Two Cardinal women crowned ACC track and field champions

Senior Alyssa Jones has never walked away from a conference championship empty-handed. 

On Friday, she claimed her second-consecutive ACC title in the high jump, bringing her total to six conference wins. Senior Juliette Whittaker followed suit on the track the next day, winning the 800 meters for her second conference crown. 

The two Cardinal led the Stanford women to a fifth-place team finish in Boston, while the men placed 13th – both notable drops from last year’s performances at the championship.

Jones won the high jump with ease, clearing the field by 0.8 meters with a height of 1.86m (6-1 ¼). Just an hour later, she returned to double in the long jump but fell 0.02 meters short of Louisville’s Synclair Savage, taking second place. Her mark of 6.38m (20-11 ¼) made her just shy of defending her 2025 ACC title in the event. 

Jones also raced in the 60 meters prelim later that day and returned on Saturday to run with Whittaker on Stanford’s 4 x 400-meter relay team, helping the Cardinal place fifth in the meet’s final event. She was named the Women’s Field MVP for the meet and remains undefeated in the high jump so far this season. 

Saturday’s 800-meter final featured a highly anticipated battle between Whittaker and Clemson’s Gladys Cheptengich. Cheptengich came into the race with a personal best of 1:58.81 set in late January, making her only the second collegian in NCAA history to break 1:59 in the indoor 800 meters. 

Whittaker, meanwhile, had posted times of 4:30.97 in the mile and 1:25.64 in the 600 meters to earn a spot on February’s Bowerman Watch List — track and field’s most prestigious honor. 

When the two middle-distance standouts faced off on Saturday, the race came down to the final stretch, with Whittaker narrowly outkicking Cheptengich by 0.18 seconds to win in 2:01.84. 

Junior Leo Young delivered Stanford’s best performance on the men’s side, placing third in the mile with a time of 3:59.98 to earn All-ACC First Team honors. After breaking the elusive four-minute barrier in the mile just once last season, Young has broken it in every final this year, including a race under 3:57, and continues to lead the Cardinal in the mid-distance events.

Sophomore Xavier Drumgoole (15.63m, 4th) and senior Alaysia Oakes (12.90m, 6th) earned All-ACC Second Team honors in the men’s triple jump and women’s triple jump, respectively. The Cardinal also fielded distance medley relay squads, featuring Young and Whittaker, that finished third for the men and fourth for the women. 

Stanford track and field will close out its indoor season at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. on Mar. 13-14. 

Only the top 16 athletes across the division in each event can qualify for the meet, and the final fields will be announced on Mar. 3. Currently, only Whittaker (800 meters), Jones (high jump, long jump) and junior Sophia Kennedy (5,000 meters) remain in strong contention to compete at the national championship. 

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