The Podium's 2024-25 indoor track season opens Saturday with Spokane Invitational...
While Seattle University, Seattle Pacific, Gonzaga, Washington, and Washington State sent a handful of athletes to Boston for last Saturday's Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener, the 2025 indoor track and field season opens Saturday for the majority of teams as Spokane Sports hosts the annual Spokane Invitational at The Podium.
With nearly all nine Washington schools finishing up finals week before the holiday break, many teams won't have their full complement of athletes competing Saturday.
Also, most of the teams won't have their top distance runners competing in Spokane, especially those who finished up the cross country season.
The only two schools who won't have a presence in Spokane on Saturday are Seattle University and Saint Martin's.
Action at The Podium begins at 9 am with the men's high jump and women's weight throw. The first track event is the women's 5000 at 10 am, and finishes with the women's, men's and a mixed 4 x 400 relay at 6:10 pm.
On the track, events of interest include the women's 60 featuring NCAA 100 hurdles scorer Micaela De Mello (Paul Merca photo) of Washington State; the men's 60, featuring the Cougars' Grant Buckmiller and John Paredes, along with former Husky All-American Daniel Gaik, who is competing unattached, and former SeattleU sprinter Miguel Rosario, who transferred to Grand Canyon, but is also competing unattached.
Paredes is also entered in the 60 hurdles, where he'll potentially face Pac-12 hurdles scorer Jonathan Frazier of the Huskies, and decathlete Jami Schlueter, who competed at the NCAA outdoor meet for the Dawgs.
Western Washington's Bec Bennett, who was supposed to make her debut in Reno last week before being hit with a bout of food poisoning, enters the women's 400 as the top seed.
The men's 300 could potentially be the best race of the day, as it features USA world U20 4 x 400 relay teammates Grant Buckmiller of the Cougars and Alex Rhodes of D3 University of Puget Sound, as well as former Husky All-American Daniel Gaik.
On the field, last year's Pac-12 champ, NCAA and US Olympic Trials qualifier Prestin Artis of Washington is the man to watch in the long jump.
While it doesn't have the firepower of last year's meet, which featured world championships finalist Hana Moll, her twin sister Amanda, and NCAA scorer Nastassja Campbell of the Huskies, the women's invitational pole vault features NCAA indoor qualifier Eva Lowder of Washington State and her teammate Tatum Moku, along with NCAA D2 qualifier Lauryn McGough of Central Washington and GNAC champion Lizzy Daugherty of Seattle Pacific.
The Moll twins are scheduled to open the 2025 season at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno on January 17th.
The men's invitational pole vault features NCAA indoor qualifier Mathis Bresko, who is competing unattached, as he only has outdoor eligibility remaining at Washington. Also in the field are UW teammates Simon Park and Scott Toney. Toney, a grad transfer, was a NCAA indoor scorer last year at Penn, while Park was a Pac-12 scorer.
The final time schedule for the Spokane Invitational, as well as the link to live results is available here.
If you can't make it to The Podium, media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) will stream the Spokane Invitational.
O'SULLIVAN, FAY & TANNER TO RACE ROAD MILE IN NELSON, NEW ZEALAND SATURDAY...
Three of the University of Washington's six track & field competitors at the Paris Olympics will reunite in Nelson (Whakatū), New Zealand for Saturday's Spectacle Mile.
Current Husky Sophie O'Sullivan, along with former Huskies Brian Fay and Sam Tanner will race through the streets of Nelson (Whakatū) in a mile road race.
The format is very similar to last week's Kalakaua Merrie Mile in Honolulu, where the women got a head start, with the men trying to chase them down. The women will get a 30-second head start.
The field for the combined race is listed below on Athletics New Zealand's Instagram post:
NOTE: Spokane Sports, Athletics New Zealand, and the sports information offices of Central Washington, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, Seattle Pacific, Washington, Western Washington and Washington State contributed to this report.
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