ON TAP: Eight Washington Division I/II schools in action this Friday and Saturday...

Eight of Washington's nine NCAA Division I and II schools are in action Friday and Saturday at various meets in Washington, Oregon, and California.

Washington State travels to Eugene for the two day Hayward Premiere meet at newly renovated Hayward Field (photo courtesy University of Oregon Athletics) on the campus of the University of Oregon.

Oregon was supposed to open Hayward Field at last year's Pac-12 and US Olympic Trials meets, but the global covid-19 pandemic put an end to that, making the Hayward Premiere the debut of the rebuilt track and field stadium.

Hayward Field, which will host the NCAA championships as well as the Olympic Trials in June, is set to welcome a host of D1 schools, including Brigham Young, Oregon State, Boise State, Utah, Arkansas, and New Mexico to what is considered by far the best track and field facility in the United States. Hayward will also host next year's World Athletics Championships.

Media partner Runnerspace.com will offer free streaming of the meet, beginning with the field events on Friday at 3 pm, and the running events at 5:30 pm. Saturday's portion of the meet begins at noon with the women's discus, while the running events begin at 1:05 pm.

Start lists for the Hayward Premiere are available here.

The University of Washington heads south to Palo Alto for a significantly scaled down Stanford Invitational that features thirteen schools, including Cal, USC, UCLA, and Long Beach State.

Action gets underway Friday at 3:30 pm, and Saturday at 9:30 am.

Except for the Husky throwers, all of the other event groups will have a significant presence at the Stanford Invitational.

The fields should be highly competitive and another great opportunity for the Huskies to move up the descending order lists. The UW men's team has already come out swinging in its first handful of meets, going to No. 7 in the USTFCCCA Ratings Index this week.

Friday's competition will feature Huskies in the women's pole vault, and men's and women's long jumps and on the track, the Dawgs will race in the steeplechases, women's 5k, and men's 10k.

The most intriguing aspect of Washington's day 1 competitors is 12-time All-American Katie Rainsberger, who will run the first steeplechase of her collegiate career.

Washington's release, which includes a link to heat sheets and live results, is available here. Flotrack ($) will offer live streaming coverage of the Stanford Invitational.

Seattle University's track and field team returns to action on Friday when it travels to Riverside, California  to compete in the Chris Rinne Twilight, hosted by UC Riverside. The event is schedule to take place at UC Riverside Track & Field Stadium with the first event starting at 10:30 a.m. and the last event starting at 9:15 p.m. The Redhawks will be competing against athletes from UC San Diego, Montana State, San Diego and UC Riverside. 

SeattleU's release is available here, and the link to live results is available here.

Whitworth University hosts Eastern Washington and a small group of athletes from Washington State Friday at the H.I.R. Invitational at Boppell Track on the Whitworth campus, starting at 2:00 pm.

With the Eagles only competing in meets in the Northwest until the Big Sky Conference championship meet, Eastern will have the majority of their team competing Friday.

One notable entry missing for Eastern Washington is hurdler Parker Bowden, who is not entered in the 110 hurdles this week, after breaking the school record three weeks in a row.

The start list and link to live results for Friday's H.I.R. Invitational is available here.

Besides Washington and Washington State continuing competition at Stanford and Eugene on Saturday, Gonzaga's women's squad will compete at the Northwest Distance Jamboree hosted by Lane Community College in Eugene.

That meet, which begins at 4 pm on the Lane CC track, features a number of schools from the state of Oregon. Additionally, Washington State alum and 2019 USA outdoor championships qualifier Caroline Austin makes her season debut in the steeplechase.

The start list for the Northwest Distance Jamboree is available here.

Finally, all of Washington's Division II schools except for Saint Martin's will assemble in Bellingham for the Western Washington University Invitational at Civic Stadium.

In keeping with COVID-19 protocols, the meet is closed to all spectators. Additionally, the meet will be contested in two sections, with all women's events from 10 am to 2 pm, and the men's portion of the meet  from 2:30-6:30 pm.

The link to live results are available here.

NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Oregon, Stanford University, Washington State University, University of Washington, Seattle University, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Western Washington University, and Lane Community College contributed to this report.

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