Sound Running Track Meet highlights action this weekend...
With the elimination of the University of Washington's Ken Shannon Invitational meet this weekend, many of the schools from the state of Washington are taking a low key approach to the final weekend of the regular season.
Seattle University, which will host next week's Western Athletic Conference championship meet at Husky Track, is taking the weekend off, as is Saint Martin's and Washington State University, which has finals.
The big meet this weekend is Sound Running's Track Meet/American Track League Orange County Classic on Friday night & Saturday afternoon at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, California, featuring a large number of pros from the state, plus a small group of University of Washington distance runners.
Seattle's Brooks Beasts will have a large contingent, led by Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Josh Kerr (Paul Merca photo), who is entered in the men's 5000 meters, along with teammates David Ribich and Henry Wynne.
Also in the 5000 field is former Emerald Ridge standout and 2016 US Olympian Hassan Mead.
The headliner in the 5000 is Olympic 1500m gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, who is reportedly looking for a sub 13:10 time, which is well under the world championships standard of 13:13.50.
The Beasts will also run Devin Dixon (800), Izaic Yorks (1500), Waleed Suliman (1500), Drew Windle (800), Brannon Kidder (800), Olympian Marta Pen Freitas (1500), Allie Buchalski (5000), Nia Akins and Laurie Barton (both 800).
Suliman, Windle, Akins and Barton will double back and run in Saturday's American Track League/Orange County Classic.
A group of five former Huskies are in the field, led by Tokyo Olympians Sam Tanner (1500) and Izzi Batt-Doyle (10000), who have been in the United States training for the last ten days, as they look to attain the world championship standards in those events.
Also in Friday's meet are Katie Rainsberger, Julius Diehr and Mick Stanovsek.
Current Husky Carley Thomas is in the meet, as are a group of eight men, including Sam Affolder, Brian Fay, Isaac Green, Nathan Green, Luke Houser, Kieran Lumb, Ryan Renken, and Joe Waskom as they sharpen up for next weekend's Pac-12 championships in Eugene.
Washington volunteer coach Sam Prakel is also in Friday night's meet, as are Washington State alum Paul Ryan and Spokane native John Dressel.
The start list for the Sound Running Track Meet/American Track League Orange County Classic on Friday night & Saturday afternoon at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, California is available here.
Pacemaker information for the meet is available here.
The Sound Running Track Meet can be viewed here ($) starting at 5:10 pm.
Saturday's American Track League Orange County Classic begins at 3 pm.
OTHER MEETS THIS WEEKEND...
A small contingent of runners from Gonzaga's men's squad plus Washington State alums Nick Johnson and Caroline Austin are competing at the Oregon Twilight meet in Eugene on Friday.
Eastern Washington will send athletes to Missoula, Montana this weekend (May 6-7) for the Tom Gage Classic at Dornblaser Field. This meet will be the last chance for the athletes to show what they can do before the Big Sky Conference championships on May 11-14 in Pocatello, Idaho.
The men's and women's hammer will be contested Friday, while all other events will run on Saturday.
Finally, Western Washington and Central Washington will send athletes to the Linfield Open meet on Saturday, while another group of Western Washington athletes will compete along with a small group from Seattle Pacific at the Portland Twilight meet at Lewis & Clark College Saturday as those schools tune up for next weekend's Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet in Ellensburg.
ROAD TO OREGON 2022...
Here's a resource link for all readers looking to see who has qualified and has the standards for the World Athletics Championships in Eugene at Hayward Field (Paul Merca photo) in July.
The link is called the Road to Oregon 2022, and it sorts by men and women, along with event and country who has qualified for that event for the world championships.
Please keep in mind that the lists are not final pending the outcome of the various national championships and the selection processes from various federations around the world. The final lists, including those athletes eligible for entry through the world rankings, will be that of June 29th, after the national championships.
OOPS, WE MISSED THIS...
In our recap of the Drake Relays, we completely overlooked the fact that Washington alum Gianna Woodruff was second in the 400 hurdles to her training partner and reigning world champ Dalilah Muhammad. Muhammad ran 53.88, with Woodruff exactly one second behind.
NOTE: World Athletics, Sound Running and the sports information office of Eastern Washington and the University of Washington contributed to this report.
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