Huskies open Dempsey to UW Invitational Friday & Saturday...

Both the University of Washington and Washington State University's indoor track & field teams return to action Friday and Saturday, as the Huskies host the UW Invitational at the Dempsey Indoor, with action starting Friday at 2:00pm, and resuming Saturday morning at 11:00 am.

With no spectators allowed, media partner Runnerspace.com ($) will stream both days of the meet live.

Friday's women's 3000 at 7:00 pm, and the men's 5000 30 minutes later will highlight day 1, while all field events will be contested Friday.

The women's 3000 features eight athletes with seed times of 9:19 or better, including last year's MPSF champion at this distance, Haley Herberg (photo by Paul Merca).

Herberg was the Huskies' top finisher early last week at the season-opening Silver State Collegiate Invitational cross country meet in Las Vegas, where she ran 20:02 for 6k.

Along with teammate Allie Schadler, who is moving up after running the mile two weeks ago at the UW Preview, Washington alums Mel Lawrence and Eleanor Fulton are in the field, as well as UW volunteer coach Alli Cash, who won the mile two weeks ago.

Courtney Wayment, who anchored BYU to the victory in the distance medley relay two weeks ago, and finished fifth at the NCAA cross country championships in 2019, is also in the field, as well as teammate Olivia Hoj, who was on that winning DMR squad two weeks ago.

The headliner in the men's 5000 is multi-time All American Conner Mantz of BYU, who was third in the 2019 NCAA cross country championships, and is ranked third in the men's 3000. He'll go up against a field that includes NCAA West region cross country champ Andrew Jordan of the UW, defending MPSF 5000 champ Brandon Garnica of BYU, and Colton Johnsen of Washington State.

The feature field event Friday is the men's shot put, featuring the Huskies' outstanding freshman, Sam Van Peursem, who set a UW freshman record two weeks ago when he won the event with a toss of 62-10.75 (19.17m).

Two-time All-American Chase Smith, who only has outdoor eligibility remaining for the UW, is entered in the men's pole vault.

The men's 60 hurdles, both men's and women's miles, and the men's 3000 are the featured running events Saturday.

In the men's 60 hurdles, the Washington State duo of Sam Brixey and Nick Johnson look to improve their standing on the NCAA Division I performance list, as they go against Stanford grad transfer Julian Body, who has outdoor eligibility remaining for the Huskies.

Washington volunteer coach Alli Cash, who won the mile two weeks ago and briefly held the fastest time by an American at 4:33.72, goes against two-time world championships competitor and 2016 Portuguese Olympian Marta Pen Freitas of the Brooks Beasts, and Virginia Tech alum and 2019 USA world championships team member Hanna Green of the Nike Oregon TC. A slew of collegians including BYU's Anna Camp and the Huskies' Katie Rainsberger are looking to run fast times as well.

The men's mile is loaded with the likes of the Huskies' Cruz Culpepper and Mick Stanovsek (outdoor eligibility remaining) against the Cougars' Colton Johnsen and Zach Stallings, who won the mile last week at the Arkansas Qualifier.

Oh by the way, pros Vince Ciattei, Will Paulson and Patrick Tiernan, a 2016 Australian Olympian, representing the Eugene based Nike Oregon TC are in the field as well.

The men's 3000 has Oregon All-American Jackson Mestler, who won last week's Oregon XC Invitational, going against Lake Washington HS alum and former Utah State All-American Dillon Maggard, and Club Northwest's Tom Anderson.

At least four athletes qualified for the NCAA indoor track & field championships last year from meets held at the Dempsey Indoor in the men's and women's mile, 3000, and men's 5000 before it was cancelled one day before the start of the meet due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The link to live results is available here.

SEVEN ATHLETES WITH WASHINGTON TIES HEAD TO NEW YORK FOR SATURDAY'S NEW BALANCE GRAND PRIX...

A contingent of seven athletes with Washington ties head to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on New York's Staten Island for Saturday's nationally televised New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.

NBC Sports will have live coverage of the meet from 1-3 pm, pacific time on Saturday (KING TV 5 in Seattle).

Federal Way HS alum Hannah Cunliffe is entered in the women's 60, while her sister Chloe is entered in the pole vault, where she will go against Washington alum Olivia Gruver.

Camas native Alexa Efraimson is entered in the women's 1500, while Washington alum Amy-Eloise Markovc (Neale) is slated to run the two mile

Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel, and current Husky Sam Tanner, who returned to the United States and the UW after winning the New Zealand national titles in the mile and 3000 a few weeks ago, are both entered in the men's 1500 meters, as a group look to go under the Olympic standard of 3:35.00.

Former UW volunteer coach Amos Bartelsmeyer, who recently moved to Portland to train under the Nike Bowerman TC is also in the field.

The meet was just moved to Staten Island from the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury, MA., due to the Reggie Lewis Center being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site.

The start lists for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix are available here.

NOTE: The sports information office of the University of Washington, and Global Athletics contributed to this report.

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