WSU's Kovich leads heptathlon in Spokane; 8 of 9 Washington D1/D2 schools in action...
With spring break going for the majority of the state's nine Division I and II schools, only Washington is idle this weekend, as the Huskies will open their outdoor campaign next weekend.
Competition started Thursday for Eastern Washington, Washington State and Gonzaga with the first day of the two-day Buc Scoring Invitational in Spokane, hosted by Whitworth University.
Sarah Kovich (file photo courtesy WSU Athletics) leads the field in the heptathlon with a first day score of 2867 points.
She won the first two events, running 15.24 in the 100 hurdles, then high jumped 5-7 (1.70m). Kovich threw 33-3.75 (10.15m), then finished the day by running 27.60 in the 200.
Whitworth's Daniel Watts leads the decathlon with 3225 points.
Gonzaga's Evan Bates won the men's 5000 in 14:36.26, while College of Idaho's Charlie Duff won the women's 5000 in 17:45.71 in the only two running event finals contested Thursday.
Day 1 results of the Buc Scoring Invitational are available here.
The majority of Eastern Washington's squad, along with Seattle University, Western Washington, Central Washington, and Saint Martin's, head south on Interstate 5 to compete in Friday and Saturday's Oregon Preview at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
A smaller group of athletes from Saint Martin's and Western Washington will compete at the Payton/Shotwell Invitational (SMU) in Tacoma and the UBC Invitational (WWU) in Vancouver.
Seattle Pacific heads to the San Diego area for meets at the Mangrum Invitational in San Marcos on Friday, and the Point Loma Nazarene University Invitational and the Aztec Invitational in San Diego Saturday.
The majority of the team Saturday will be at Point Loma, while the Falcon pole vaulters and triple jumper David Njeri head to the Aztec Invitational, against a predominantly Division I field.
Links to the live results of the various meets are highlighted by the name of the meet.
IN OTHER NEWS...
The 1984 Olympic Trials Legacy Committee is organizing a reunion of the inaugural U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials (photo of start courtesy Olympic Trials Legacy Committee), which was contested on May 12, 1984.
More than 50 of the 267 Trials qualifiers plan to attend, and a search is under way to find the rest of those history-making runners. The committee is reaching out to the running community to help find those qualifiers. If you know one or more of the athletes, contact Info@orgsupport.com and an electronic invite will be sent out.
Weekend festivities include a private reception at the Governor’s Mansion, a celebratory public banquet on Friday, May 17 at Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia and a running expo. The weekend will conclude with the annual Capital City Marathon races on Sunday.
Among those planning to attend include Trials champion Joan Benoit Samuelson, who won the race in Olympia in 2:31.04, less than three weeks after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. That race was the springboard to her winning the Olympic gold medal in the marathon's debut for women in Los Angeles months later.
Samuelson, who recently ran the Tokyo Marathon to complete the set of six Abbott World Marathon Majors races, is still actively involved in the sport as a runner, motivational speaker, author, mom, race director and community activist.
Others scheduled to attend include Trials runner-up Julie Brown, who is a family law attorney in California as well as an active board member on several local non-profit and for profit boards.
Jacqueline Hansen, a former American and world record holder in the marathon, passionately lobbied the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee for many years to ensure that this historic event would happen. Prior to 1984, the longest official track distance for women was 3000 meters.
NOTE: The sports information office of Washington State and the Olympic Trials Legacy Committee contributed to this report.
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