Melissa Tanaka, a Stanford graduate student-athlete and NCAA Division 1 Indoor champion in the women’s distance medley relay, joins DyeStat editor Erik Boal to discuss competing April 28 at the 127th Penn Relays and her return to Franklin Field in Philadelphia for the first time since 2019. Tanaka teamed with Nia Akins, Uchechi Nwogwugwu and Maddie Villalba to lead Penn to victory in the Championship of America women’s DMR in 10:59.44, helping the lineup become the first Ivy League women's quartet to win the event in meet history. She is scheduled to compete with fellow Division 1 champions Maya Valmon, Roisin Willis and Juliette Whittaker, who contributed to the fastest performance on an oversized indoor track in collegiate history Feb. 24 by clocking 10:49.30 at the Ken Shannon Invitational in Seattle, before securing the NCAA crown March 10 with a 10:56.34 effort in Albuquerque, N.M. Tanaka examines the potential for Stanford to not only win the women's distance medley relay for the first time at Penn Relays, but also challenge the collegiate outdoor DMR record of 10:48.38 established by Villanova at the 1988 meet, and how meaningful it would be for her to contribute to history with another program following her previous experiences at Franklin Field with Long Beach Poly High from California, as well as competing in the 4x800 relay and DMR for Penn. She revisits Stanford head coach J.J. Clark confirming that the Cardinal would be able to attend Penn Relays following the Division 1 Indoor Championships, after the program was unable to participate last year as a result of the annual Big Meet against rival Cal being scheduled on the same weekend. Tanaka analyzes the challenge of racing April 28 at the Penn Relays, before flying from Philadelphia back to California later that evening, in order for the quartet to compete again April 29 in Berkeley at the Big Meet. She reflects on the development and improvement in her career since transferring to Stanford to pursue a Masters degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and how valuable it has been to train last year with veteran standouts Julia Heymach and Christina Aragon, as all three athletes reached the Division 1 outdoor final in the 1,500, in addition to being teammates this season with freshman stars Whittaker and Willis. Tanaka also explains how significant it was to run a personal-best 2:04.77 in the 800 meters April 22 in her final collegiate race at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field at the Payton Jordan Invitational.