The Road to Doha begins here...
I’ve always considered big events like the world championships a privilege to cover. I started covering this meet in 1991 in Tokyo, and since that time, it’s taken me to Stuttgart, Athens, Seville, Edmonton, Paris, Helsinki, Osaka, Berlin, Daegu, Moscow, Beijing, and London.
There’s no doubt that events like the world championships are a grind, and each place has its own set of challenges. I’m hearing from some of my friends on the ground in Doha already to expect temperatures reaching 100 degrees during the competition in the evening. The marathons and the 50k walks will be contested at midnight, which in itself will be a challenge to photograph.
Another major challenge we will face while in Doha is that we are in the middle of the collegiate cross country season, which is a major part of our coverage.
We will do our best, given the time difference between Seattle and Doha, to give you the college cross country coverage you’ve come to expect from us.
We will link notes and stories with those written by our network of sports information directors throughout the state of Washington to supply you with news about the nine Washington NCAA Division I and II schools.
As always, when you can’t check the web site, please visit our Twitter and Instagram feeds @paulmerca70601.
COLLEGE NOTES:
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| Washington's Talon Hull at the Battle in Beantown Mike Scott photo |
On the men’s side, the Huskies remained at number 3 behind Northern Arizona and BYU, despite a fifth place finish at the Battle in Beantown last week in Boston. The Huskies rested several athletes who could play major roles come championship time.
Other Pac-12 schools ranked in the national top 30 include #4 Colorado, #6 Stanford, #11 Oregon, and #24 UCLA
The Arkansas women’s team, which won the John McNichols Invitational last Saturday in Terre Haute, Indiana, jumped past the Husky women to number three, and bump Washington down to number 4.
Colorado, New Mexico, Arkansas, Washington, and Stanford are the nation’s top five women’s teams.
Number 9 Oregon, #27 UCLA and #30 Utah are the other Pac-12 women’s teams ranked in the national top 30.
The NCAA Division II national poll will be released later on Wednesday.
The USTFCCCA release is available here.
Speaking of the Huskies, the school announced that Lyndsey Lopes, a former Pac-12 high jump champ and NCAA qualifier in both the heptathlon and high jump, is attending the school as a graduate transfer.
The USC grad won the Pac-12 high jump title in 2018, and scored in the heptathlon at the Pac-12s three times.
The addition of Lopes gives Washington three athletes with heptathlon scores better than 5600 points.
Washington's release is available here.
NOTE: The University of Washington and the USTFCCCA contributed to this report.
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