Championship weekend gets into full swing Friday with Pac-12, Big Sky, GNAC & WAC titles up for grabs...
It's an end of an era as one of the most competitive collegiate conference championships makes its last stand at Potts Field on the campus of the University of Colorado starting Friday and continuing until Sunday afternoon as the Pac-12 Conference holds its final championship meet before Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA head to the Big 10, while Utah, Arizona, Arizona State and host Colorado go to the Big 12, and Cal & Stanford move to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Washington State and Oregon State's track & field programs, for the time being, will be homeless or operate as independents next season, as they will be in the Mountain West for football and the West Coast Conference for most other sports. That said, the WCC, which includes Gonzaga, does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track as a championship sport.
Going back to the final Pac-12 championship meet, nearly all teams with the exception of host Colorado, and Utah, will have to contend with the altitude in the distance races, as Salt Lake City is at 4265 feet of elevation, and Boulder is at 5430 feet.
Conversely, there could be some fast marks in the sprints, and hot marks in the horizontal jumps at the conference championship meet.
Heading into the Pac-12s, athletes from Washington and Washington State ranked in the conference top 3 in the conference include Wilma Nielsen (Paul Merca photo) in the 800; Nathan Green and Luke Houser in the 1500; Chloe Foerster in the women's 1500; Evan Jenkins in both the 5000 and 10000; Hayley Herberg in the 10000; Sam Affolder in the steeplechase; Colorado native Max Manson in the pole vault; Jonathan Birchman in the 400 hurdles; Hana Moll and Nastassja Campbell in the women's pole vaout; Trevontay Smith in the men's triple jump; Chandler Ault in the men's javelin; and Jami Schlueter in the decathlon.
For the Cougs, Maribel Caicedo in the 100 hurdles; John Paredes in the 110 hurdles; Jared McAlvey in the 400 hurdles; Caroline Jerotich in the 3000 steeple; high jumper AJ McGloflin; and decathlete Lee Walburn are ranked in the top 3 in the conference entering the weekend.
Washington will be missing decathlete Bruno Comin Pescador, and 800 meter runner Carley Thomas from the Pac-12 championship meet. Thomas opted not to use her final season of outdoor eligibility.
On paper, USC appears to be the favorite on the men's side, while Oregon is a heavy favorite for the women's team championship.
The Pac-12 Networks will televise much of the meet live, including all track finals, plus select field events. Here is the live television schedule and the networks on which the events will air.
Friday, May 10
Women's Javelin at 10 a.m. PT (Pac-12 Bay Area, Los Angeles, Oregon, Washington)
Men's Javelin at 1 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Network and all regional networks)
Women's/Men's 10k at 4:50 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Network, Arizona, Mountain, Oregon, Washington)
Saturday, May 11
Men's Hammer at 12:30 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Mountain, Oregon)
Women's/Men's Steeplechase at 4:20 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Arizona, Mountain)
Sunday, May 12
Pac-12 Track & Field Championships at 12 p.m. PT (Pac-12 Network, Arizona, Mountain.
Action begins Friday with the combined events, prelims in the 1500, 200 & 400 hurdles, finals on the field in the javelins, long jumps, and the women's hammer, with the 10000s the only track final.
Five field event finals, plus the conclusion of the combined events, and the finals of the steeplechase highlight Saturday's action, while everything else concludes on Sunday.
The Pac-12's championship central, which includes links to live results, the time schedule, and the record book, is available here.
We will be on the ground in Boulder for Sunday's final day of competition.
In Bozeman, Montana, Eastern Washington's Cody Teevens (photo courtesy EWU Athletics) finished second in the men's decathlon as the combined events portion of the Big Sky Conference concluded amid snow, rain and some sun at the Bobcat Track & Field Complex.
Teevens, who was in third at the break Wednesday, finished with a final score fo 6184, as day 1 leader Nicola Paletti took the conference title with 6410 points.
Teevens won the 110 hurdles in 15.07, then finished second in the discus with a throw of 99-3 (30.25m), then vaulted 12-5.25 (3.79m).
He finished second in the javelin with a throw of 154-7 (47.12m), then ran the 1500 in 5:14.49.
Despite a no height in the high jump on Thursday, Colin Hughes of Eastern Washington fought his way back to finish seventh with a final score of 5094 points, highlighted by a win in the 1500, where he ran 4:37.66.
All four Washington Division II schools are off to Ellensburg, as Central Washington plays host to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship meet starting on Friday.
Western Washington enters the GNAC championships with the rare opportunity to become the first school in GNAC history to sweep the men’s and women’s cross country, indoor track and outdoor track team titles during the same academic year. The Viking women and men claimed both of the cross country titles in Anchorage, Alaska in the fall, before sweeping both indoor track team titles at The Podium in Spokane, Wash., in February. WWU is the reigning team outdoor champion in both genders, as the Vikings will look to become just the second team in conference history to repeat in both genders after Western Oregon achieved that feat in 2003-04.
The link to live results is here, while the GNAC's meet preview is here.
Finally, Seattle University is in Orem, Utah for the Western Athletic Conference championship meet, which started Thursday with the combined events, along with finals in the men's and women's hammer, women's pole vault, and women's javelin.
Both Redhawk squads were dead last in the 2023 championship meet with two points on the men's side (11th place), and three in the women's competition (13th place).
Azalea Groleau in the women's 1500, Yonas Sauers in the men's 10000, and Gus Harquail in the steeplechase are SeattleU's best chances for a top three podium finish position. Groleau is ranked third in the WAC in the 1500 at 4:30.34, while Sauers is ranked fifth in the men's 10000 at 29:42.66, and Harquail is fourth on the WAC descending order list at 8:56.10.
NOTE: The Pac-12 Conference, Big Sky Conference, Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western Athletic Conference, and the sports information offices at the University of Washington, Washington State, Eastern Washington, and Seattle University contributed to this report.
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