Western off to Roy Griak Invite; rest of squad, plus Central Washington at Saint Martin's Invitational...

Three of the state’s four Division II squads are in action Saturday in a fairly light weekend of competition, after last week’s Sundodger Invitational in Seattle, and Gonzaga’s dual meet with Idaho in Spokane.

In a meet where they hope for a strong showing to possibly propel themselves to a national ranking, the Western Washington men’s and women’s squads head to St. Paul, Minnesota for the Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota.

This meet will be the Vikings’ first major test of the year, as their top runners ran the season opening triangular two weeks ago with Central Washington and Saint Martin’s at a controlled pace, or were held out of last Saturday’s Sundodger Invitational.

At last year’s Griak Invitational, the Viking men’s squad finished fifth, led by Isaac Derline in 6th, and Andrew Wise (left/photo by Paul Merca) in 10th over an 8k distance. The Viking women’s team was sixth in the meet in 2016.

Flotrack will provide live streaming coverage of the Roy Griak Invitational ($) beginning at 7 am pacific.

Those not making the trip to Minnesota will make the drive to Lacey for Saturday’s Saint Martin’s Invitational, where they will again see Central Washington, and host Saint Martin’s, who were idle last week.  

At the SMU Invite, the women will run 5k, with the men running 8k.  The meet starts at 10 am on the Saint Martin's campus course next to the track.

Seattle Pacific is taking the weekend off, and competes next weekend at the Charles Bowles Invitational in Salem, hosted by Willamette University.