Indoor season gets underway Friday and Saturday in Cheney for Eagles...

Eastern's Nick Stearns
(photo courtesy EWU Athletics)

Believe it or not, the 2014 indoor track & field season gets underway Friday and Saturday, as Eastern Washington University hosts the sixth annual Candy Cane Invite at the Jim Thorpe Fieldhouse in Cheney.

While it's a bit of a low-key season opener for the Eagles, the meet will be scored as a dual meet between the Eags and visiting Montana.

“Each year we feel like the meet is involving and that remains true this year,” said head men’s coach Stan Kerr. “It’s a great meet on a lot of different levels.”

“This is an opportunity for our athletes to see what they’ve accomplished from fall training,” said head women’s coach Marcia Mecklenburg. “It’s a great time for them to have fun and see where they’re at.”

“It’s always fun to go against Montana because they tend to be competitive in events we’re also competitive in,” said Mecklenburg. “I can’t tell you how many times one point has separated us with Montana in terms of team standings at conference, so we’re always in the mix with them.”

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 12:30 p.m. In addition to the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles, the one-mile run has also been added to the list of running events offered at the meet.

Courtesy of Eastern Washington University, here's a video preview of the meet:

Meanwhile across the state, the University of Washington will have a low-key intrasquad meet to celebrate the end of the fall training block Thursday night at the Dempsey Indoor starting at 5pm, with the first running event at 6:15 pm.

The final event of this intrasquad meet is the entertaining all x 307 relay, which involves every team member from throwers to sprinters, as each runner, jumper, and thrower goes one lap around the Dempsey oval.

NOTE:  The sports information office of Eastern Washington University contributed to this report.