Katie Flood named Pac-12 athlete of the week, plus notes...

Washington sophomore Katie Flood (left/photo by Randy Miyazaki/trackandfieldphoto.com) was named by the Pac-12 Conference as its female track athlete of the week for the week ending April 22nd.

Flood won the 1,500-meters invitational section at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif., on Friday, posting the fourth-fastest time so far in the world this season and the fastest by an American outdoors this year. The 2011 Pac-12 Cross Country Champion and NCAA Distance Medley Relay Champion cut seven seconds off her personal best, running 4:11.66, the seventh-fastest time in Pac-12 history and third-fastest in UW history. She now leads the NCAA at that distance.

The Huskies are preparing to face Washington State in the annual UW/WSU dual meet in Pullman on Saturday.

The Pac-12's release is available here.

Don't know how this slipped past everyone, but Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times wrote a piece nearly two weeks ago on what the University of Washington track team was doing for training outdoors while their new track & field facility is being built just north of the Husky Soccer Stadium.

Condotta writes, "Some track workouts are being held this spring at the track at Nathan Hale High School in northeast Seattle at 35th Ave. NE and 110th Street. The sprinters might be at Hale one day and the middle-distance runners the next. Distance runners do some work there but often have specific workouts - such as hill repeats - that take them elsewhere. Distance runners also can just go out the door to run mile after mile after meeting at Dempsey."

For the distance runners, there's an abundance of places to run from the Dempsey, including, the Burke-Gilman trail, the Arboretum, and Green Lake.

"Throwers are working out regularly at West Seattle Stadium by the West Seattle Golf Course on 35th Avenue SW where there is room for javelin, hammer, and discus throws."

Condotta's piece is available here.

Almost lost in the hoopla surrounding USA Track & Field's announcement of Max Siegel as its new CEO, was this release announcing the USA vs the World portion of the Penn Relays in Philadelphia this weekend.

No fewer than 21 countries will be represented at the premier relays event in the world. Team USA will battle against teams from Jamaica, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Kenya and Morocco.

This year’s relays include the Nike Men’s Distance Medley, BMW Women’s Sprint Medley, BMW Men’s 4x100m, Visa Women’s 4x100m, Visa Men’s 4x400m and Nike Women’s 4x400m.

USA vs. the World is the first stop of the 2012 Outdoor Visa Championship Series and will be broadcast live on NBC from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.

Washington State University alum Bernard Lagat will lead the men’s distance medley team with an impressive line-up assembled from a group that includes fellow Coug alum Jeshua Anderson, along with Khadevis Robinson, Nick Symmonds, Russell Brown and Leo Manzano. Lagat is fresh off of his third World Indoor title in the 3,000m and set an indoor American record in the 5,000m in February.

USA Track & Field's release can be read here.

Meanwhile, University of Washington alum Aretha Thurmond will compete in two meets Wednesday and Friday in the greater San Diego area. She'll throw the discus Wednesday at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, and at the Triton Invitational hosted by the University of California/San Diego on Friday.

Another Husky alum, Scott Roth, will compete in the mall vault competition Wednesday as part of the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa.

You can watch Roth compete starting at 6 pm, Central time (4 pm on the West Coast) via this link, courtesy of the Drake Relays.

Kara Patterson from Vancouver, the American record holder in the javelin, will also compete at the Drake Relays, throwing on Friday.

NOTE:  The Pac-12 Conference, the University of Washington, the Drake Relays, UC San Diego, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.