Chase for Trials & Olympic standards in 5000 & 10000 is on in Los Angeles...

The chase for Olympic qualifying standards in the men's and women's 5000 and 10000 meters goes into full effect Friday and Saturday nights at an undisclosed location in the Los Angeles area.

Former Brooks Running sports marketing guru and Sound Running head Jesse Williams is staging what is simply called "The Track Meet" Friday and Saturday nights, as a way to give athletes an opportunity to obtain the US Olympic Trials qualifying standards of 13:25.00 (m)/15:20.00 (w) in the 5000, and 28:00.00 (m)/32:25.00 (w) in the 10000, as well as the Olympic standards of 13:13.50 (m)/15:10.00 (w) in the 5000 and 27:28.00 (m)/31:25.00 (w).

In Friday night's 5000, athletes will be split into four men's heats, and two women's heats.

Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel will run in the top men's section, which is scheduled for 9:45 pm. 

The top women's section at 9:20 pm features Husky alum Eleanor Fulton (photo by Paul Merca).

American record holder Shelby Houlihan of the Nike Bowerman TC is the top seed in the women's race.

While Houlihan set the American record of 14:23.92 on July 10th, she doesn't hold the Olympic standard, as the mark was set outside the qualifying window, which was closed at the end of March, when the sport shut down due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

Current Huskies Julius Diehr and Andrew Jordan, along with Haley Herberg and Allie Schadler are entered as unattached athletes in other sections of the 5000, along with Washington State's Paul Ryan, and Inglemoor HS grad Tansey Lystad.

Washington alum Fred Huxham is entered in the second section of Saturday's 10000.

The top section of the men's 10000 is headlined by Oregon alum and multiple-time NCAA track and cross country champion Edward Cheserek, while New Mexico's NCAA cross country champion Weini Kelati, who announced that she's turning pro, headlines the women's 10000.  

The top section of the women's 10000 also features 2016 Olympic women's triathlon champ Gwen Jorgensen of the Nike Bowerman TC, and 2020 USA cross country champ Natosha Rogers, along with Keira D'Amato, who recently set an American road record for 10 miles.

Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) will stream the races Friday and Saturday via the USATF.tv platform, starting at 7:30 pm pacific time on Friday and 5:00 pm pacific Saturday.

The start lists for The Track Meet are available here.

NOTE: Sound Running and FinishedResults.com contributed to this report.

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