It's earlier, but The Dual returns with Huskies seeking payback...

UW's Julius Diehr and WSU's Kyler Little
were both Pac-12 scorers in the steeple
last year. They face off in the first
track race of The Dual
(Paul Merca photo)

The meet is three weeks earlier in the season due to scheduling quirks, with both schools opting to compete in invitationals, but one of the country’s oldest dual meets will be contested Saturday on the purple oval that is Husky Track, as Washington hosts Washington State in The Dual.

Action gets underway at 10 am with the men’s hammer, with the men’s steeplechase kicking off the running events at 1:38 pm, and the women’s 4 x 400 relay closing out the meet at 4:24 pm. The Pac-12 Network will not televise the meet, as they have for the last several editions of the meet in Seattle.

The meet, which is part of the Boeing Apple Cup series involving ten sports between the two schools, celebrates its 100th men’s contest, in a series dating back to 1901.

The UW men won 14 of the first 16 Duals, but the Cougars dominated a 20 year stretch from 1976 to 1995, winning 19 men's duals in a row. The Husky men won five in a row from 2014-18 until the Cougars broke that streak last year in Pullman. WSU has the overall men's lead, 59-39-1 but the Huskies have a 24-22 lead in Seattle.

On the women's side, the Dawgs won the first six dual meets, and 15 of the first 18, before WSU won 10 of the next 11. The teams have now split over the past ten years, with UW winning three in a row from 2016-18 before the Cougars won last season. The Huskies hold the edge in the women's race, 21-18, and have a 10-7 lead in Seattle.

In sweeping the Huskies in Pullman last year, the Cougars got head coach Wayne Phipps his first ever wins in the Dual since taking over the program in 2015.

The Huskies haven’t forgotten the feeling of getting swept…that said, the Dual will be a new experience for program director Maurica Powell and head coach Andy Powell, along with associate head coach Toby Stevenson.

But if you think that they’ve got no clue how to manage a team in a dual meet, remember that during the trio’s time as undergrads at Stanford, they went through the dual meet experience in The Big Meet against the University of California.

The most significant names missing from the entry lists are javelin thrower Atina Kamasi and distance runner Chandler Teigen for Washington State and distance runner Lilli Burton for the Huskies. Additionally, defending Pac-12 pole vault champion Sander Moldau is competing in his first meet since early February.

WHO’S GONNA WIN?

For this year’s meet, we are honored to receive a dope sheet from Jason Drake, the former associate head coach at the UW and ex-distance coach at Washington State, who is one of the few to have coached on both sides of the rivalry.

Both of us have the Husky women winning by an 88-75 count. On the men’s side, JD has Washington winning 91-72, while I have the Dawgs by a 95-68 margin.

We agree that Washington has enough depth on the men’s side to get a comfortable win. The women’s side could come down to a few key events late in the meet. In my mind, the two late events to watch are the 800 and the 200.

Once again, the 5000 will be the distance race of choice instead of the 3000, as athletes will try to get marks for the NCAA regionals in late May.

Drake's dope sheet:

Dual by on Scribd

Merca's dope sheet:

Uw Wsu 2019 Dual by on Scribd

Saturday’s weather forecast is for temperatures in the mid-50s with an 80 percent chance of rain.

Washington’s release is available here, with a link to live results and entries.  Washington State’s release is available here.

AROUND THE STATE…

Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, and Central Washington are in Spokane for the annual Washington Against the Region (WAR XII) meet Friday and Saturday hosted by Spokane Falls CC, while Western Washington hosts Seattle Pacific and Saint Martin’s and the University of British Columbia in the WWU Team Invitational Friday at Civic Stadium in Bellingham.

Seattle University is idle this weekend.

NOTE: Special thanks to Jason Drake for his contribution. The sports information offices of Washington and Washington State contributed to this report.

There is a technical issue in posting the Excel files with the dope sheets for the meet. We will happily email you the files if you leave a note in the comments section.