Six Washington D1/D2 schools off to Texas and Bay Area for meets this weekend...

The pursuit of warm weather continues for six of the state's Division I and II teams, as Texas and California are the destinations for Washington, Washington State, Seattle University, Gonzaga, Western Washington, and Central Washington.

The migration to warm weather venues began Wednesday in Austin, Texas, as Washington State's Lee Walburn (photo courtesy WSU Athletics) finished fifth in the two-day decathlon at the Texas Relays, scoring 7323 points.

Wednesday, he started by running 11.01 in the 100, then followed it up with a mark of 21-0 (6.40m) in the long jump.

He then threw 41-5.25 (12.63m) in the shot put, then cleared 6-3.5 (1.92m) before running 49.97 in the 400 to end day 1 with 3725 points and eighth place at the break.

Thursday, the 2022 NAIA champ from Carroll (Montana) started by running 15.33 in the 110 hurdles. He moved on to the discus, where he threw 136-7 (41.63m), before vaulting 15-1 (4.60m).

He finished by throwing the javelin 183-10 (56.05m), a mark that gave him his highest finish in the ten events, placing second. Walburn ended the day by running 4:49.59.

In the invitational section of the 400 hurdles, Washington's Cass Elliott, who entered the meet with the nation's fastest time at 50.26, ran 50.05, while Jonathan Birchman ran 51.03. Washington State's Jared McAlvey ran 51.77.

Elliott advances to Friday's final at 3:40 pm, Seattle time.

WSU's Mackenzie Fletcher posted a season-best time of 1:00.79 in the women's 400m timed event to finish 12th-overall. 

While Elliott and Birchman are the only Huskies competing at the Texas Relays, Washington State has their sprinters and hurdlers in Austin. In addition some of those competing at the Texas Relays are entered in the Texas State Bobcat Invitational, which are also happening Thursday-Saturday in San Marcos, Texas.

The link to live results for the Texas Relays is available here, while the link for the Texas State Bobcat Invitational is available here. The Texas Relays are being streamed on the Longhorn Network, which is part of ESPN+ ($)

The Cougars, Huskies, along with Gonzaga, Seattle University, Western Washington, and Central Washington will have a presence in the Bay Area at the Stanford Invitational that starts Friday.

In addition, a small group from Western Washington, Central Washington and Gonzaga will compete in the Mike Fanelli Invitational in San Francisco, hosted by San Francisco State University.

For the Huskies, making the trip to Stanford will be the middle and long distance runners, multi event specialists, pole vaulters, and horizontal jumpers, with the short sprinters and throwers having the weekend off.

Some notable Huskies making their season debuts after competing during the indoor season unattached include NCAA scorers Ed Trippas and Kayley DeLay (steeple) and Sam Ellis (1500m). Trippas and Ellis are grad transfers from Princeton, while DeLay comes from Yale.

Seattle University and Washington State have a number of entries at Stanford, while Gonzaga's entries on both the men's and women's side are in the distance races. Gonzaga's two-time NCAA qualifier James Mwaura makes his outdoor debut this season, as he's entered in the 10000.

Central Washington's entries includes NCAA indoor qualifiers E'Lexis Hollis in the 100, and Lauryn Chandler in the 100 hurdles, while Jeret Gillingham highlights Western Washington's entries in the men's 3000 steeplechase.

The accepted entries for the Stanford Invitational are available here. Flotrack ($) is offering live streaming of the Stanford Invitational.

The link to live results for Friday and Saturday's Mike Fanelli Invitational is available here. Flotrack ($) is also offering live streaming of the meet.

NOTE: The sports information offices of Washington State, Washington, Texas, Stanford, and San Francisco State contributed to this report.

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