The Dual between the Dawgs and Cougs returns Wednesday...

Hannah Rusnak of UW in the 2019 Dual
(photo courtesy UW Athletics)

After being paused for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of college track & field's longest running dual meets is renewed as Washington State travels west to Seattle to meet the University of Washington in The Dual Wednesday at Husky Track.

Unfortunately a limited number of student-athlete guests will comprise the fans allowed inside Husky Track to view the meet, due to COVID-19 state government restrictions.

The first events will be the men's hammer throw and the women's high jump both starting at 10 a.m. The first running event, the men's 3,000m steeplechase, starts at 1:00 p.m. The meet should conclude around 4:10 p.m. with the women's 4x400m relay closing things out. 

One of the few remaining D-I head-to-head track meets, the UW-WSU Dual uses a scoring format of 5 points for 1st-place, 3 for 2nd-place, and 1 for 3rd-place in every individual event. Relays are big as only the winning team gets 5 points. With 19 events per gender, there is a total of 163 points up for grabs, so a team reaching 82 points clinches the win.

Washington and Washington State's first track meet came in 1900, in a tri-meet that included Idaho. The first head-to-head meeting came the next year in 1901 which the Huskies won in Seattle, 96 to 26. The UW men won 14 of the first 16 Duals, but the Cougars dominated a 20 year stretch from 1976 to 1995, winning 19 men's duals in a row. The Husky men have won six of the past seven Dual Meets. WSU has the overall men's lead, 59-40-1 but the Huskies have a 25-22 lead in Seattle.

On the women's side, the Dawgs won the first six dual meets, and 15 of the first 18, before WSU won 10 of the next 11. The teams have now split over the past ten years, with UW winning four of the past five. The Huskies hold the edge in the women's race, 22-18, and have a 11-7 lead in Seattle.

In Andy and Maurica Powell's first year at the helm of the Husky track program in 2019, their teams scored a historic first for the program, as both squads scored 100 points in the same meet. The only time it had happened in meet history was in 2010, when the Cougars turned the trick, 108-55 men, and 114-49 women.

Below is my dope sheet for the meet, based on entries posted Tuesday afternoon. I have the Huskies winning both the men's meet 103-60, and the women's meet 108-54. That said, both teams can make last minute substitutions at the line.

Uw Wsu 2021 Dual by Paul Merca on Scribd

The University of Washington's release is located here, along with a link to live results, heat sheets and the meet time schedule.

NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington and Washington State University contributed to this report.

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