Kara Patterson blogs about the hoops elite track athletes go through, plus hot links...

Friend of the blog, Vancouver's finest, and American record holder in the javelin Kara Patterson (left/photo by Paul Merca) writes on the US Olympic Committee's web site about the trials and tribulations elite track and field athletes go through to get to either a world championships or Olympic Games.

In what is essentially "Elite Track & Field for Dummies", Kara breaks down the steps that America's best have to go through to get to either the world championships or the Olympics, complete with a flow chart.

She also writes in the beginning of the blog that, "It’s so difficult sometimes to get people to understand professional track and field that I’m tempted to lie and say that yes, I am in fact a basketball player, because YES, I’m SO TALL.  Once, someone innocently and naively asking questions about what I do said, 'So, your sport doesn’t matter in non-Olympic years?'  That felt good."

To read her blog, please click here.

The air time schedule for the Pac-10 track & field championships, held in Tuscon last weekend is now available.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Pac 10 meet will air on Thursday afternoon at 5 pm on Root Sports/Northwest (formerly FOX Sports Northwest), unless the Seattle Mariners game versus the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim goes into extra innings, in which case it will be joined in progress.


Here is a link to the document listing air times of the Pac-10s for other parts of the country.

The University of Washington men's squad and the Washington State women's team moved up in the latest USTFCCCA top 25 poll released Tuesday.

The Husky men moved to #20 from #23 in the poll, while the Cougar women moved seven spots up to #16 from #23 in the last poll.

After their respective conference championships, Florida’s men and Texas A&M’s women regained their top positions in the national rankings, a place held by both in the preseason.

The top 25 poll can be accessed here.

In Division II, the Western Washington men's team dropped to #22. In the women's national poll, Seattle Pacific remained at #8, while Western Washington moved two spots up to #11.

Abilene Christian and Grand Valley State remain the #1 team in the country in the current men's and women's polls.


The USTFCCCA Division II poll can be accessed here.

The list of accepted entries for next week's NCAA Division II championships were released Tuesday, with 620 participants (310 men/310 women) accepted by reaching the automatic/provisional standards over the course of the season.

The championships will be held May 26-28 in Turlock, California, at the Al Brenda Track Complex.  California State University, Stanislaus, will serve as host of the championships.

The accepted entries can be accessed here.

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