Wanda Diamond League circuit resumes after Olympic break with Nike Pre Classic distance night...

EUGENE--The Wanda Diamond League series resumed Friday night at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon with four distance races to kick off the Nike Prefontaine Classic.

University of Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel (Paul Merca photo) finished fourth in the International Mile, running 3:55.99, as New Zealand's Geordie Beamish snuck past Craig Engels for the win in 3:54.86 to Engels' 3:55.41.

Henry Wynne of the Brooks Beasts was sixth in 3:57.43, while Seattle resident Tripp Hurt was eighth in 3:58.15.

Washington alum and British Olympian Amy-Eloise Markovc was fifth in the rarely-run two mile, finishing in 9:21.98, as Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba won in a meet record 9:00.75.

Recent Washington grad Katie Rainsberger was ninth in 9:41.79.

The North American women's 1500 saw Oiselle's Rebecca Mehra win in 4:06.35. Washington alum Eleanor Fulton was sixth in 4:09.85, while Portuguese Olympian Marta Pen Freitas of the Brooks Beasts was eighth in 4:10.90.

Friday night's session ended with former Nike Oregon Project standout and double Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands taking a shot at the world record in the 5000, but fell short. However, she ran a season best 14:29.89 in essentially a solo effort, with second place nearly 15 seconds back.

The Nike Prefontaine Classic resumes Saturday afternoon with perhaps the best field in meet history, led by 14 Tokyo Olympic gold medalists, including former Pullman resident Katie Nageotte, who is entered in the pole vault.

The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America and is part of the elite Wanda Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually. The Pre Classic’s results score has rated No. 1 or No. 2 in the world 8 of the last 9 years it has been contested. The meet has been sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the longest running title sponsorship of a single sports event in the United States. The NIKE Prefontaine Classic will be shown live to an international audience by NBC on Saturday,

The start list and time schedule for Saturday's meet is available here, while the meet preview from the Eugene Register-Guard is available here.

NOTE: The Wanda Diamond League and the Nike Prefontaine Classic contributed to this report.

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