The craziest few days in collegiate track & cross country begins Thursday in Fayetteville...
Perhaps one of the craziest next several days in collegiate track and cross country begins Thursday in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as the NCAA Division I indoor track & field championships gets underway at the Randal Tyson Track Center, hosted by the University of Arkansas.
Live championship coverage will be streamed on ESPN3. A re-air of the meet will take place Sunday, March 14 on ESPNU starting at 9 p.m. Eastern. To access the live stream, visit ESPN3.com.
Because of the pandemic, the meet, which is normally conducted over two days, is stretched out to a three-day meet in order to reduce the number of people inside the Randal Tyson Track Center.
In addition, Friday and Saturday's competition will consist of men's events in the morning and early afternoon, with the women's events contested in the evening, again to reduce capacity inside the track facility.
Thursday's session consists of the men's heptathlon, and women's pentathlon, along with both the men's and women's weight throw.
Washington freshman Jayden White (above/photo by Paul Merca) will make his NCAA debut looking to become the first UW men's weight All-American since Neil Kneip in 1986. White broke three-time NCAA champion Scott Neilson's school record this year, which had stood 42 years since 1979. The weight throw starts Thursday at 4:30pm, pacific.
Friday, Washington's Jonah Wilson and former Husky Angel Nkwonta of Maryland go in the men's and women's shot put competition at 9:00 pacific.
In Friday afternoon's session, Zach Stallings of Washington State and Sam Tanner of Washington are in the same heat of the men's mile semis, along with BYU's Lucas Bons, the man who was towed by Tanner to a fast time at the Husky Classic two weeks ago.
Fifteen minutes later, Washington State's Sam Brixey goes in the qualifying rounds of the 60 hurdles.
At 1:05 pm pacific, the Huskies' Andrew Jordan & Colton Johnsen of the Cougars go in the finals of the men's 5000 to cap off Friday's men's session.
Kicking off the Friday evening session at 5:00pm pacific, Washington's Katie Rainsberger is qualified for a fourth career NCAA indoor meet and looks to add to her 11 previous All-America honors in track and cross country.
At 6:45 pm pacific, Washington will run a distance medley relay. The plan is to go with a fresh foursome of Kelly Makin, Olivia Ribera, Marlena Preigh, and Madison Heisterman. Makin and Heisterman both set big mile PRs this season, Makin running a best of 4:41.18 and Heisterman a time of 4:39.70. Preigh is also coming off an 800-meter lifetime best of 2:06.06 at the Husky Classic. Ribera in the 400-meters has a season-best of 56.23 and a PR of 55.12.
Saturday, the finals for the mile are scheduled for 12 noon pacific for the men and 4 p.m. pacific for the women. The men's 60 hurdles final is slated for 12:30 pacific. Thirty minutes later, WSU's Colton Johnsen returns for the finals in the men's 3000.
Washington State's Charisma Taylor kicks off the Saturday night session in the triple jump at 3 pm pacific, one hour before the finals of the mile.
At 5 pm pacific, Washington's Allie Schadler and Woodinville native Olivia Markezich, whose sister Andrea runs for Washington, both go in the finals of the 3000 meters to close out the NCAA championships.
Upon the conclusion of the NCAA indoors, Schadler, Makin and Heisterman, along with a host of teams and individuals competing at the indoor championships will make the trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma for Monday's NCAA cross country chanpionships. While Schadler was held out of last week's Pac-12s in University Place, Makin and Heisterman both ran, with both among the Huskies' five scorers.
NOTE: The sports information office of the University of Arkansas, University of Washington, and Washington State University contributed to this report.
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