ON TAP: West Coast Relays, Oregon St. Hi-Performance, Buc Scoring Invite & Vernacchia Invite...
With conference championship meets looming over the horizon in two weeks, there's a sense of urgency as athletes who are/aren't on the cusp of making their team's travel squad look to get marks that will convince their coaches that they should be on the team going to the conference championship meet and beyond.
Washington's nine NCAA Division I & II schools will be split between four meets Friday and Saturday.
WEST COAST RELAYS
Former UW and WSU assistant coach Jason Drake (left/photo courtesy Fresno State University), who is now the head men's and women's coach at Fresno State, had a vision of reviving one of the premier meets in the West Coast when he interviewed for the job after the 2019 season.
The meet, which was primarily a sprints, jumps, and throws meet back in its heyday, is back with a twist, as the distance races are the headline events, as powerhouse distance programs like BYU, NC State, Boise State, New Mexico, Colorado, Stanford, and Northern Arizona make their way towards the Central Valley of California.
The meet is also attracting a number of pros with Washington ties, including UW volunteer coaches Alli Cash and Sam Prakel, Washington alum Eleanor Fulton, and Kirkland native Dillon Maggard.
Except for the 10000m, which is being run at 7:30am, all of the distance races will be contested Friday night starting at 7 pm.
Flotrack ($) will stream the meet starting at 2 pm, pacific.
OREGON STATE HI-PERFORMANCE
Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, and Seattle University head to Corvallis for the Oregon State Hi-Performance meet, hosted by Oregon State University.
The meet is being split into five segments over a two day period, with Friday's session consisting of the hammer, long jump, pole vault and discus Friday morning; an afternoon session of the 200 and 400 hurdles; and an evening session entirely consisting of distance races.
Saturday morning's session consists of the javelin, high jump, shot put and triple jump, while the afternoon running events are all races 800 meters and below, plus both relays.
The link to accepted entries, time schedule, and live results is available here.
BUC SCORING INVITATIONAL
Seattle Pacific, which also has on its schedule the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational in Bellingham, is instead sending both its mens and women's squads across the state for the Bus Scoring Invitational, hosted by Whitworth University.
Field events begins at 2 pm, with running events getting underway at 3:15 pm.
The Buc Scoring Invitational has been around for several years, but this will be the first time Seattle Pacific has participated.
The link to live results for the Buc Scoring Invitational is available here.
RALPH VERNACCHIA INVITATIONAL
Western Washington hosts the Ralph Vernacchia Invitational Saturday at Bellingham's Civic Stadium, featuring Central Washington, Saint Martin's. and Alaska Anchorage.
In addition, Pacific Lutheran and the University of Puget Sound will send athletes to the meet.
The meet begins at 10:30 am with the women's hammer throw. The first track event is the women's 3000 steeplechase at noon, with the meet concluding before 5 pm.
The link to accepted entries, time schedule and live results is available here.
STUFF WE MISSED OVER THE WEEKEND...
Last Saturday and Sunday, Washington volunteer coach Tim Duckworth finished third in the decathlon at the Chula Vista High Performance meet with a final score of 7158 points.
The objective of the competition was to try and attain the Olympic standard of 8350 points to help ensure selection for Great Britain's Tokyo squad this summer.
After Saturday's first five events, Stanford alum Harrison Williams held a 4351 to 4282 lead over Duckworth, but the discus, pole vault and javelin did him in.
He got off to a decent start in the 110 hurdles, running 14.52 for 908 points.
In the discus, he only threw 134-4 (40.95m), then vaulted 15-9.75 (4.82m), and threw the javelin 128-0 (39.03m), which only got him 684, 856, and 428 points.
With almost no chance to get the standard, he didn't finish the 1500.
Results of the Chula Vista High Performance are available here.
NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington, Fresno State University, Washington State, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific, Central Washington, and Western Washington contributed to this report.
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