2025 indoor track & field season kicks off this weekend for seven of nine Washington schools...
Just as soon as the collegiate cross country season concluded on November 23rd, don't look now!
The 2024-25 indoor track and field season gets underway for the colleges this weekend with seven of Washington's nine schools sending individuals to compete Friday and Saturday.
The big meet of the opening weekend of the collegiate track and field season is the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener hosted by Boston University at the BU Track & Tennis Center.
Due to the combination of racing on one of the fastest indoor 200 meter banked tracks in the US, and athletes who ran cross country looking for a race before scattering home for the holidays while in peak racing condition, the Colyear-Danville meet has produced numerous NCAA indoor qualifying marks over the years.
Consider: Three of the nine collegiate athletes who ran under 7:40 in the men's 3000 last season did it at this meet. In the men's 5000, nine of the 16 fastest times going into the NCAA championships were run in this meet alone, including a 13:03.78 run by Graham Blanks of Harvard, two weeks after he won his first NCAA cross country title.
The women's 3000s and 5000s had similar patterns as well. Seven of the top 16 times in the 3000 were run in this meet, while four top 16 marks in the 5000 were run at this meet.
The top section of the men's and women's 5000 will see several athletes take a shot at the Tokyo world championships standard of 13:01.00 (men) and 14:50.00 (women). While highly unlikely, the world indoor championship standard for the 3000 in Nanjing, China in March is 7:31.00 for men and 8:33.00 for women.
The bottom line: if you don't want to worry about qualifying for the NCAA championships on the final weekend of the regular season, which is the week ending March 1st, come to Boston.
The University of Washington is sending eleven athletes to Boston, led by Nathan Green (Paul Merca photo), who is entered in the 3000.
Gonzaga is sending a group of three women and two men, headlined by WCC cross country champ Rosina Machu and Olympic Trials qualifier Wil Smith. Washington State is sending NCAA cross country All American and WCC cross country champ Evans Kurui, along with NCAA qualifier Zenah Cheptoo.
Seattle University is entering Azalea Groleau & Lilianne Hargreaves in the 3000, along with Alex Jensen in the 800.
Central Washington sends their two-time cross country All American Johan Correa, and Seattle Pacific enters NCAA Division II cross country fourth place finisher Annika Esvelt.
Four of Husky men's coach Andy Powell's pro group are entered in the meet, including Sam Ellis and Joe Waskom in the 3000, along with Sam Prakel and Canadian Olympian Kieran Lumb in the 5000.
Other notable pros with Washington ties entered include Gonzaga alum James Mwaura and UW alum Julius Diehr in the 5000, and India Weir, who finished her collegiate eligibility at the UW two weeks ago at the NCAA cross country championships. She's entered in the 5000.
Four newcomers who did not run cross country are scheduled to make their UW debuts in Boston: transfers Justin O'Toole (Columbia), and Kyle Reinheimer (North Carolina) are entered in the men's 1000, and Martin Barco, a freshman from Indiana, is entered in the mile. Princeton grad transfer Maggie Liebich is entered in the women's 3000.
Action at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener gets underway at 7:15 am Pacific/10:15 am Eastern time.
The miles begin at 7:50 am Pacific, while the featured 3000s and 5000s begin at 11:05 am Pacific (3000) and 1:10 pm Pacific (5000).
The link to live results is available here. Flotrack ($) will stream the meet live.
The only other meet of significance this weekend is the Nevada Silver State Invitational and Multis which begins Thursday, and runs through Saturday at the new 200 meter track & field facility at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.
Western Washington is sending 400 meter runner Bec Bennett to Reno. She'll run in the A section Saturday at 12:25 pm.
NOTE: The sports information offices of Boston University and the University of Nevada contributed to this report.
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