Fifth-year senior Nathan Butler earned the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week, the conference announced Wednesday. Butler went 6-1 on the week, including a third-place finish at the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga. As a result, Butler moved to No. 7 in the national rankings at 285 pounds; the highest in his career.
At the Scuffle, Butler recorded a 4-2 decision in the second sudden victory period over No. 12 Jordan Wood (Lehigh) to advance to the semifinals. His 12 second pin over No. 13 Thomas Haines (Lock Haven) earned him a spot in the third-place bout, where he knocked off No. 3 Nick Nevills (Penn State) for his highest career finish at the tournament.
Butler, a native of Leavenworth, Kansas, also picked up a critical 8-2 decision over Patrik Garren to help propel the Cardinal a 21-20 win over Penn on Sunday. He is now 17-5 on the year and is four wins away from becoming just the 10th Cardinal to register 100 career victories.
This marks the second career weekly honor for Butler, who took home the award on Jan. 25, 2017, and the fourth for the Cardinal since the award began in 2016.
Stanford is back on the road this week, taking on Brown in Providence and Harvard in Boston on Saturday.
Women’s soccer
Sacred Heart Prep grad Tierna Davidson, Civana Kuhlmann and Kiki Pickett were named to the United States U-20 women’s soccer national team, coach Jitka Klimkova announced Wednesday.
The 20-player roster will compete in the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Trinidad and Tobago, starting play in Group B on Jan. 20 against Nicaragua. The team then faces Jamaica on Jan. 21 and Mexico on Jan. 23 to wrap up group play.
The eight-team field features two groups, with the top two teams from each group advancing to the semifinals. The two teams that qualify for the finals, as well as the winner of the third-place game, earn a berth in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in France.
Davidson will meet the U-20 team. She’s been training with the senior women’s national team the past week or so at the United States Soccer National Training Center in Carson, California.
The Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, Davidson was named All-Pacific Region, All-Pac-12 and All-America after helping Stanford win the College Cup, where she was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
Kuhlmann, a freshman forward from Centennial, Colorado, earned a berth on the Pac-12 All-Freshman team after scoring nine goals and assisting four others. Appearing in all 25 matches as both a sub and starter, Kuhlmann finished eighth in the Pac-12 in points (22). Following the College Cup, Kuhlmann won the Golden Boot as the top scorer at the U-20 Nike Friendlies in Florida.
Pickett, a freshman defender from Santa Barbara, played nearly the whole season at right back, making 24 starts. She was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman team after scoring one goal and assisting four. With Davidson, Pickett helped Stanford finish the season on a 1,988:59 minute streak without allowing a goal from the run of play.
Squash
Fourth-ranked Stanford breezed past No. 11 Brown 9-0 on Wednesday evening at the Arrillaga Center for Sports & Recreation.
The Cardinal (6-1) won eight of its nine matches in straight sets while Casey Wong shook off a two-set deficit before rallying past Quincy Beck 11-13, 9-11, 11-9, 15-13, 11-4 at the top spot of the lineup.
Stanford’s five-match homestand concludes on Thursday, when the Cardinal hosts Tufts at 4 p.m.
Stanford, which is coming off a historic season in which it finished fifth at the CSA National Championships, will play its final seven contests away from The Farm.
Track and field
Stanford’s promising track and field season begins Saturday with the UW Indoor Preview at the University of Washington.
Stanford returns 22 All-Americans, including 13 who have earned first-team honors indoors or outdoors — 11 in individual events. Strictly indoors, Stanford returns 11 All-Americans, including three expected to compete Saturday on the 307-yard flat Dempsey Indoor track: Olivia Baker, Tom Coyle, and Missy Mongiovi.
This is the only meet that includes a 600-meter distance, which is perfect for Baker, a two-time NCAA outdoor 800 finalist and the 2016 Pac-12 400 champ. Baker took on Oregon’s Raevyn Rogers in this distance last year, with Rogers blazing to a 1:26.34, a collegiate record for any-sized track. Baker set a Stanford record of 1:28.22 while finishing second. Baker will be joined by quartermiler Missy Mongiovi, who teamed with Baker, Elise Cranny and Vanessa Fraser on Stanford’s NCAA runner-up distance medley relay team last year.
NOTES: Two-time DMR All-American and sub-4 miler Tom Coyle will race the 3,000 … making her collegiate track debut is sophomore Ella Donaghu, a fixture on the Cardinal’s top-five NCAA cross country teams the past two years. Donaghu, one of the fastest high school 1,500 runners of all time will run the 1,000 … among the freshmen expected to make their collegiate debut are Ashlan Best, Aria Small, Carolyn Wilson, Brandon McGorty, Gabe Navarro, and Louis Stenmark … Best capped her 2017 season by winning the Pan Am Junior Championships in the 200 for her native Canada … fifth-year senior Valarie Allman, a discus thrower for the U.S. team at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London, competes in the 20-pound weight throw. She has broken the Stanford record in the weight throw six times. This will be her first competition since capturing silver in the discus at the World University Games in Taipei, Taiwan, on Aug. 24.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports