Twenty eight athletes with Washington ties head to America's heartland for USATF Outdoor Championships...

Drew Windle (Paul Merca photo)

There may only be three teams of significance that athletes are competing for at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa beginning Thursday at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships—the Athletics World Cup in London in July; the NACAC Championships in Toronto in August; and the IAAF Continental Cup in Ostrava, Czech Republic in September, but it’s not stopping the young up-and-coming athletes from skipping the championships.

With 2018 a non-World Championship and Olympic year, some of the sport’s biggest names, including Allyson Felix, Justin Gatlin, and Christian Coleman, are bypassing the meet in order to rest up for the European circuit, or to heal up from injuries.

Here are the athletes with Washington ties who are declared and entered for the four-day meet:

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MEN
400m	Marcus Chambers
	Michael Berry
800m	Drew Windle
1500m	David Ribich
	Hassan Mead
	Izaic Yorks
	Henry Wynne
5000m	Hassan Mead
10000m	Garrett Heath
110H	Devon Allen
400H	CJ Allen
3000 ST	Andrew Gardner
Hammer	Brock Eager
WOMEN
800m	Hannah Fields
	Baylee Mires
	Savannah Colón
1500m	Alexa Efraimson
	Eleanor Fulton
5000m	Katie Mackey
	Allie Bulchalski
	Eleanor Fulton
10000m	Jessica Tonn
3000 ST	Mel Lawrence
20k WALK	Katie Burnett
Pole Vault	Katie Nageotte
Triple Jump	Andrea Geubelle
Javelin	Kara Winger
	Bethany Drake
	Katie Reichert
Heptathlon	Alissa Brooks-Johnson

Notable non-entries in the meet with Washington ties include decathlete Jeremy Taiwo, and sprinter Hannah Cunliffe.

The time schedule for the USATF Outdoor Track & Field Championships is available here.

Thursday and Friday's competition will be streamed online via NBC Sports Gold subscriptions ($). Friday will also be broadcast on a tape delay on NBC Sports Network from 8-10 p.m. Pacific time. Saturday and Sunday will be televised live on NBC from 1-3 p.m. Pacific.

THE COACHING CAROUSEL CONTINUES TO SPIN…

Gonzaga University placed an announcement on the NCAA jobs web site Wednesday for the head women’s track and cross country position formerly occupied by Patty Ley  (above/photo courtesy Gonzaga University), who has apparently resigned from the school.

Ley, a legendary high school coach at Gig Harbor HS before moving onto the collegiate ranks, was named the West Coast Conference Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year in 2015. She guided the Zags to the WCC title and the program’s first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championships. GU finished the season ranked No. 27 in the country after finishing 25th at the NCAA Championships.

She was instrumental in guiding Snohomish native Shelby Mills to a spot in the NCAA national championships in 2015 and 2016 in the steeplechase.

Ley has also served as a USA national team leader at the 2010 and 2015 IAAF world cross country championships.

UPDATE (7:20 am, Thursday 6/21): paulmerca.blogspot.com received a message from Gonzaga director of track and field/cross country Pat Tyson stating that Ley has moved back to Gig Harbor to assist her mother, who is battling health issues.

A Gonzaga spokesman sent an email stating that a formal announcement will be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, all of the coaches from Greg Metcalf’s staff at the University of Washington, along with operations director Kelsey Quinn, have been removed from the UW track & field web site, indicating that new coaches Andy and Maurica Powell will start anew.

Curiously, Jason Drake, Anita Campbell, volunteer assistant Jonathan Coopersmith, and Quinn were still listed on the UW’s cross country page as of this writing.