Fall conditioning ends for Cougs and Dawgs with intrasaquad meet; Eags face Grizzlies...

Believe it or not, three of the state's Division I schools begin their 2013 indoor track and field campaigns this week.

Washington State University gets things going Wednesday with their intrasquad meet at their indoor track complex in Pullman.

The next day, the University of Washington gets started with their fourth annual Purple/Gold intrasquad meet at the Dempsey Indoor complex, beginning at 5pm Thursday night with the weight throw and high jump on the infield.  The long jump commences at 5:30, with the pole vault starting at 6 pm.

Track events get going at 6:15, with the 60-meter hurdles. After a 300m dash and 1200m run, the coaches have scheduled a "Mystery Event" for 7:20. 

Two years ago, the mystery event featured distance runners Kailey Campbell and Christine Babcock in sumo wrestling garb in a best of three falls.

That is followed by the now-traditional 88.11-meter dash, which is the full length of the Dempsey straightaway. Final field events include the triple jump and shot put.

Everything culminates in the final Allx307-meter relay, in which the full teams lineup and each athlete takes one lap around the 307-meter oval, a race that last about a half hour last year and yet still was competitive with several lead changes.  The winning team has usually been the squad that's taken advantage of mismatches in their lineup order, most often a weight event athlete matched up against a sprinter.

paulmerca.blogspot.com will be on site at the Dempsey and hope to live tweet the event.

While the Cougars and Huskies go against each other, Eastern Washington hosts the fifth annual Candy Cane Invitational at the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse.

This competition will primarily be a dual-meet between the Eagles and the University of Montana Grizzlies.

The meet begins Friday with the men’s heptathlon and women’s pentathlon starting at 10:30 a.m. The men will conclude the heptathlon Saturday with the first of the final three events starting at 8:30 a.m.

The regular portion of the meet will take place Saturday with field events beginning at 11 a.m. The running events start at 1 p.m. The meet will feature all field events, but the only running events contested are the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles.

The common theme for all three meets is that it's being used as a gauge to see how their squad's fall conditioning programs have panned out.  Unlike the school's distance runners, who have gone through a full fall cross country season, the other event groups have not had any competitive opportunities.

Eastern's release is available here.

The Millrose Games announced Wednesday that Washington State University hall of famer Bernard Lagat will run the two-mile at its event on February 16th at the Armory in New York City.

"Running in New York has always been a great experience for me," Lagat said. "I am really proud of my record at the Millrose Games. I am looking forward to running my best two-mile ever indoors in February. I know there will be a good and knowledgeable crowd there and that makes it a lot of fun."

During last year's 5,000m event in the Millrose Games, Lagat (13:07.15) held off training partner and University of Arizona standout Lawi Lalang (13:08.25) and in doing so surpassed Galen Rupp's American 13:11.44 indoor record.

NOTE:  The University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, and the Millrose Games contributed to this report.