Washington lowers curtain on 2015 home track season with Ken Shannon Invitational...

The University of Washington’s 2015 home track & field schedule comes to a conclusion Friday and Saturday when the Dawgs host the annual Ken Shannon Invitational at Husky Track.

Competition gets underway at 2:30pm Friday with the men’s hammer, followed by the women’s javelin at 4 pm, and the men’s javelin.

The meet resumes Saturday at 10 am with the women’s long jump and the women’s hammer.  The first race on the track is scheduled for noon, with the meet concluding around 4 pm.

The women’s long jump will be one of the meet’s featured events, as 2013 NCAA long and triple jump champion Andrea Geubelle (left/photo by Paul Merca) is entered.  The Kansas alum and University Place resident was the 2013 USA national champ in the triple jump, but did not go to the world championships in Moscow, as she didn’t have the qualifying standard.

Geubelle had a shortened 2014 pro campaign, due to an injury.  She began her 2015 season last week in Guadeloupe at the Meeting International D’Athletisme where she finished fifth in the long jump with a best of 20-9 (6.32m), as defending world and Olympic champ Brittney Reese won with a wind aided mark of 22-0.75 (6.72m).

The men’s long jump features Washington alum Norris Frederick, who is on the rebound from a disappointing 2014 season.

Both the men’s and women’s pole vaults will have quality fields, though it may be a bit of an intrasquad competition, with the women’s field headlined by MPSF indoor champ Kristina Owsinski of the Huskies against teammate Diamara Planell Cruz, who sat out last week’s dual against Washington State.

The men’s vault field features defending Pac-12 champ Jax Thoirs against senior and 2012 Pac-12 champ JJ Juilifs in his final home meet, with Lev Marcus thrown in for good measure.

The men’s high jump features a matchup between SeattleU’s Shaddye Melu, who cleared 7 feet for the first time in in career at the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa, California last month, going 7-0.25 (2.14m) and Dakarai Hightower, the USATF national club champion, who has a personal best of 7-4.25 (2.24m).

Washington will sit out most of their front line athletes in the running events in preparation for next weekend’s Pac-12 championship meet at UCLA.

Most of the competition will come from local club and community college teams, as the Division II schools that normally attend this meet are in Oregon for the GNAC championship meet.

Washington’s preview is available here.

The start lists for the Ken Shannon Invitational are available here.

ICYMI:  Agent Karen Locke recently announced on her Twitter page that she now represents SPU alum McKayla Fricker.  She also announced that Washington alum Brad Walker will compete in Saturday's Jamaica Invitational in Kingston.