Majority of Washington schools open outdoor season this weekend...

Washington State's Kelvin Limo is entered in the
1500m at Saturday's Grand Canyon Invitational
(Paul Merca photo)

For nearly all of Washington's nine Division I and II schools, the outdoor track and field season gets underway this weekend.

All of Washington's Division II schools got a head start on the outdoor season the previous two weekends, along with the Gonzaga women's team. 

The University of Washington is the only school not competing this weekend, as they'll open next weekend in San Diego.

Washington State heads south to Phoenix for the two-day Grand Canyon Invitational, with the hammer competition on Friday and the rest of the meet Saturday.

Washington State will also send a contingent to Spokane for the Sam Adams Classic, hosted by Whitworth University starting at noon . Gonzaga will also send athletes to that meet.

Eastern Washington, Seattle University and Western Washington open their 2023 outdoor campaign in Eugene at the Oregon Preview meet Friday and Saturday, with the 10000s going Friday night, and the rest of the meet contested Saturday starting at 11 am.

One interesting note in the men's 10000 is that incoming University of Washington freshman Tyrone Gorze from Crater HS in Central Point, Oregon, is entered in the field.

Gorze broke Edward Cheserek's national high school record in the 5000m at the New Balance Indoor Nationals in Boston last weekend by running 13:56.82. He has a personal best in the 10000 of 29:29.92 set last year, which is the tenth fastest time run by a high schooler.

The Oregon high school record is 29:06.8 set by South Eugene's Billy McChesney in 1976.

Seattle Pacific will host the Doris Heritage Track Festival Saturday at Renton Stadium in Renton, featuring teams from Central Washington, Western Washington, Pacific Lutheran, and the host Falcons.

The meet gets underway at 11 am with the women's shot put, men's discus, and men's triple jump. The first running event is the men's 4 x 100 relay at noon, and the women's 4 x 400 relay closes out the meet at 3:40 pm.

SPU's Vanessa Aniteye, the NCAA D2 800m champ, will be honored before the meet, Aniteye was named Friday as the USTFCCCA's Division II West Region female track athlete of the 2023 indoor season.

Saint Martin's heads to Portland to compete in the Lewis & Clark Spring Break Open meet Saturday starting at 10 am.

Links to live results for all of the meets are inside the name of the meet.

NOTE: The sports information offices of Washington State, Gonzaga, Eastern Washington, Western Washington, Seattle University, Seattle Pacific, and Central Washington contributed to this report.

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