Washington schools head to California for Mt. SAC, Long Beach & Bryan Clay Invites; Kara Patterson vents...

If it's mid-April of Washington's Division I and II schools , as well as its post-collegiate track and field athletes are heading south to compete at several meets in the greater Southern California area, including the prestigious Mt. SAC Relays on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut.

The University of Washington, Seattle Pacific, Western Washington, and Eastern Washington will have some presence at not only Mt. SAC, which is the biggest annual invitational meet on the West Coast, but also at several meets, including the Bryan Clay Invitational hosted by Azusa Pacific College on Friday, and the Beach Invitational hosted by Long Beach State on Saturday at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Thursday's Mt SAC Relays schedule comprises primarily of heats in the 1500, steeplechase, and 10000 meter runs, with the bulk of the meet occurring on Friday and Saturday.

The link to the complete Mt. SAC time schedule is here, while the final entry lists are available here.

The entry lists for the Bryan Clay Invitational are available here.

The time schedule for the Long Beach Invitational is available here.

Washington State stays at home to host the Cougar Invitational in Pullman, while Gonzaga and Seattle University travels to Eugene for the Oregon Relays.

Western Washington's Alex Harrison (above/photo courtesy Western Washington University) got the ball rolling in California, as he's in seventh after the first day in the California Invitational B Division decathlon at Azusa Pacific University with a score of 3340 points.

Harrison, a senior from Edmonds, ran the 100 meters in 11.63 seconds, had a personal-best mark of 21-3/4 in the long jump, tossed the shot 43-10, cleared 5-7 3/4 in the high jump and completed the 400 in 52.87.

Harrison resumes competition Thursday with the 110 hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and 1500.

KARA PATTERSON VENTS AND TALKS FOOD…

Vancouver's Kara Patterson (left/photo by Paul Merca) recently wrote a very insightful post on her blog about her 2011 season, in which she analyzed that she didn't "have a good handle on my technique."

"I probably wasn’t disciplined enough in my technique (whether because I was confused, in pain, or simply lazy and expected the past to work for me) to really solidify things before competitions came around, and that resulted in little freak-outs when things didn’t go well from the outset. I learned new things about javelin technique that I believe have carried over into this year, but I didn’t understand them well enough (and wasn’t brave enough) to apply them at competition pace during 2011. I also focused so much on the new ideas I was learning that I simply forgot to keep in mind the basics that had gotten me where I was."

She also wrote a guest piece on carrotsncake.com on what a typical day of training is like, and how she fuels and refuels herself before and after practice.

Patterson will open her domestic season at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa next week.

You can read her blog post on her 2011 season here, and her food post here!

NOTE: The sports information offices at Western Washington, Mt. SAC, Long Beach State, Seattle Pacific, Azusa Pacific, and Long Beach State contributed to this report.