Mile City races to highlight UW Invitational on January 27th at Dempsey Indoor...
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| Luke Houser, Nathan Green & Joe Waskom of the University of Washington compete in the finals of the NCAA 1500m in Austin,Texas last June, won by Green (Paul Merca photo) |
Snuck into the traditional 2024 University of Washington home meet information for coaches and athletes was a notice for the first annual Mile City meet at the Dempsey Indoor on January 27th.
According to the meet's mission statement, "The goal of the Mile City event is to provide an energized setting for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy running a mile in the world-renowned Dempsey Indoor facility. Test your fitness, push your limits, or just have fun seeing how close you can get to your projected time. Our aim is to engage the community through the inspired movement of sport, promote a sense of ownership through simple action and to inspire the courage for all to get up, get out and try something new."
The Mile City meet happens after the conclusion of the two day UW Invitational, with the meet consisting of races for middle school, high school, masters, collegiate and professional runners.
The kickoff race of Mile City is a community mile where the public can test themselves over 5.24 laps of the Dempsey's 307 meter oval, which is one of the fastest indoor tracks in the United States, despite it being oversized compared to the World Athletics, USATF and NCAA standard 200 meter track.
As the meet goes on from the early afternoon to the evening's final races, each race gets progressively faster, with the final race of the evening consisting of the top collegiate and pro entries in what the UW is stating as the "fastest indoor mile race in the US" featuring a winner-take-all prize pot. It's expected that meet management will have pacemakers in the field.
The meet also plans to have a special boys and girls high school section that potentially could be one of the fastest indoor high school mile races in the country.
The Mile City meet is an offshoot of last year's UW Invitational, when eight men led by the Huskies' Joe Waskom, the 2022 NCAA 1500 meter champion, crossed the line under 4 minutes.
The race set a new standard for mile races around the country and produced some record setting marks (fastest mile time ever run in the world during the month of January, Dempsey facility record, NCAA record for most runners from the same team under 4:00 minutes in the same race).
The current group of Huskies includes the last three NCAA 1500 & mile champions in Joe Waskom ('22 1500), Luke Houser ('23 mile) and Nathan Green ('23 1500), as well as Sophie O'Sullivan, who ran the third fastest all-dates list in the 1500, clocking 4:02.15 in the first round at the World Athletics outdoor championships in Budapest this summer.
NOTE: The University of Washington contributed to this report.
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