[unclechuck]

Again I'll confess to never before having watched a T&F meet until yesterday, when I had it on in the background while preparing a Mothers Day meal.

I had no idea UO and USC were so dominant.  The first race I tuned in for was the women's 100 where all nine of the entrants were from UO or USC.

Conversely, and this question is asked in complete ignorance, why don't Oregon State or Utah have a men's team competing?

Angell Field (Cobb Track?) looked beautiful on TV.

I was fortunate enough to enjoy the Sunday finals in the company of BobK and his posse of track mavens. The campus venue was every bit as gorgeous as it appeared on TV; all you missed were the refreshing breezes that waxed and waned throughout the event. Glad to hear that you enjoyed your introduction to the sport on TV.

Stanford athletes were buoyed all weekend by large and enthusiastic crowds and had numerous exceptional performances as mentioned above. The teams are clearly on an uptick over the last couple years with the women's team as strong as it has been in some time.

Some expansion to BobK's reply Re the missing men's teams from OSU & Utah:  Those two schools are in the low end of Pac12 athletic department budgets and revenues, and carry probably a third fewer sports than Stanford. Oregon State had a robust men's T& F program in the late 60s early 70s, notable for high jumper Dick Fosbury, inventor of the Fosbury Flop that transformed the fundamental style of high jumping into what is universally used today. Alas, OSU dropped track & field and cross country in 1988 due to "financial reasons". The women's team was re-instituted in 2005. Utah dropped men's T&F in 2005:

http://utahutes.com/news/2005/5/18/U_To_...ogram.aspx

To be fair, Utah does support varsity skiing at a national championship level, and seems to feel they get more bang for their buck there.

[unclechuck]

Again I'll confess to never before having watched a T&F meet until yesterday, when I had it on in the background while preparing a Mothers Day meal.

I had no idea UO and USC were so dominant.  The first race I tuned in for was the women's 100 where all nine of the entrants were from UO or USC.

Conversely, and this question is asked in complete ignorance, why don't Oregon State or Utah have a men's team competing?

Angell Field (Cobb Track?) looked beautiful on TV.

I was fortunate enough to enjoy the Sunday finals in the company of BobK and his posse of track mavens. The campus venue was every bit as gorgeous as it appeared on TV; all you missed were the refreshing breezes that waxed and waned throughout the event. Glad to hear that you enjoyed your introduction to the sport on TV.

Stanford athletes were buoyed all weekend by large and enthusiastic crowds and had numerous exceptional performances as mentioned above. The teams are clearly on an uptick over the last couple years with the women's team as strong as it has been in some time.

Some expansion to BobK's reply Re the missing men's teams from OSU & Utah:  Those two schools are in the low end of Pac12 athletic department budgets and revenues, and carry probably a third fewer sports than Stanford. Oregon State had a robust men's T& F program in the late 60s early 70s, notable for high jumper Dick Fosbury, inventor of the Fosbury Flop that transformed the fundamental style of high jumping into what is universally used today. Alas, OSU dropped track & field and cross country in 1988 due to "financial reasons". The women's team was re-instituted in 2005. Utah dropped men's T&F in 2005:

http://utahutes.com/news/2005/5/18/U_To_...ogram.aspx

To be fair, Utah does support varsity skiing at a national championship level, and seems to feel they get more bang for their buck there.