NCAA cancels both the indoor and outdoor track & field championships amid COVID-19 concerns...

Albuquerque Convention Center, which was supposed to
host the NCAA D1 track & field championships,
will be empty (Univ. of New Mexico photo).

INDIANAPOLIS--The NCAA announced Thursday afternoon that all 2020 winter and spring championships were canceled due to concern over the coronavirus:

"Today, NCAA President Mark Emmert and the Board of Governors canceled the Division I men’s and women’s 2020 basketball tournaments, as well as all remaining winter and spring NCAA championships. This decision is based on the evolving COVID-19 public health threat, our ability to ensure the events do not contribute to spread of the pandemic, and the impracticality of hosting such events at any time during this academic year given ongoing decisions by other entities."

This decision includes the cancellation of the Division I indoor track & field championships in Albuquerque, NM; the Division II championships in Birmingham, AL; and the Division III title meet in Winston-Salem, NC.

This also wipes out the Division I outdoor championships in Austin, Texas; the Division II championships in Kingsville, TX: and the Division III championships in Rochester, NY.

In other news, the Pacific Lutheran University Open meet, scheduled for this Saturday at PLU, was officially cancelled Thursday afternoon.

The Stanford Invitational on April 3-4, which the University of Washington was expected to send athletes to, has been cancelled.

The possibility remains that conferences could cancel their championship meets this spring because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As it stands, it's a fluid situation. Ditto for the possibility that schools in the state of Washington could cancel home meets this spring.

The situation for post collegiate athletes looking to get qualifying marks for the US Olympic Track & Field Trials in Eugene in June remains fluid as well.

Hours after the decision by the NCAA to cancel all of its championship events this winter and spring, the University of Texas announced that the Texas Relays in Austin on March 25-28th would be cancelled. 

Tacoma resident Chris Mirabelli, who opened his 2020 campaign last week with a win at the Ed Boitano Invitational at the University of Puget Sound, indicated after throwing at UPS last week that he intended to compete at the Texas Relays.

As of now, there's no word on the status of meets like the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, the Beach Invitational in Long Beach, and the Bryan Clay Invitational in Azusa in April, as well as the Mike Fanelli meet in San Francisco. All those meets have had a strong presence from Washington Division I and II schools as well as post collegians from the state.

UPDATE:  The Mt. SAC Relays have now been cancelled (7:55 pm).

NOTE: The NCAA, and the sports information offices of the Pac-12, Stanford University, the University of New Mexico, University of Texas, and Pacific Lutheran University contributed to this report.