Championship Weekend for Huskies (Big Ten), Eagles (Big Sky), and Redhawks (WAC)...

It's championship weekend for Washington, Eastern Washington and Seattle University this weekend as teams try to accumulate points for their squad and, in the case of Washington, try to ensure that athletes are ready to compete at the NCAA championships in two weeks in Virginia Beach.

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS...

In what perhaps might be one of the best conference championship meets in the country, Washington travels to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championships at the Fall Creek Pavilion on the Indiana State Fairgrounds Friday and Saturday.

The Huskies, along with former Pac-12 schools Oregon, USC and UCLA face their first test in an indoor conference championship setting since leaving the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation after the 2020 season in favor of a non-scoring Pac-12 Invitational that Washington hosted.

In the men's team competition, USC is the favorite, with their strength in the sprints and the long jump, while Washington will rely on their strength in the 800, mile and 3000, and the pole vault.

From a conference standpoint, the mile is perhaps the deepest event, with 25 men having broken 4 minutes in the mile, out of 133 in Division I.

“The Big Ten mile has always been really competitive, but now you’re going to see sub-4:00 milers who don’t make the final,” Michigan coach Kevin Sullivan said. “That’s just the reality of it. We have the potential to have a Big Ten championship final that will rival the national championship final.”

While as of Thursday afternoon, final entries have not been posted on the live results site, teams are limited to four entries per event and five in two events, which for the Huskies in the mile, is a potential problem.

The Huskies' Nathan Green (# 6124/Paul Merca photo) is clearly the man to watch in whatever event he enters in.

While in theory, he could run the 800, mile, and 3000 plus the distance medley relay at the Big Tens, he probably doesn't need to despite a favorable time schedule at Big Tens.

The qualifying heats in the men's mile is at noon Eastern time (9 am Pacific) on Friday, and the 800 is at 2:55 pm Eastern (11:55 am Pacific). The men's distance medley relay is the penultimate event on Friday at 8:20 pm Eastern (5:20 pm Pacific).

While the 600 isn't an NCAA championship event, it's contested at the Big Tens. Washington has four men ranked in the top ten in the conference in Justin O'Toole, Kyle Reinheimer, Bodi Ligons, and Jonathan Frazier. This may affect the Huskies' thinking in their entries, as O'Toole and Reinheimer would have to run trials in the 800 at 2:55 pm on Friday, and 4:40 pm in the 600.

On the women's side, it will potentially be a battle in the mile between Washington's Amina Maatoug and Chloe Foerster against Oregon's Silan Ayyildiz and former Husky Wilma Nielsen. The two Ducks are 1-2 in the conference, while the two Dawgs rank 3-4.

The battle between Maatoug and Ayyildiz will go into the 3000, where Maatoug is the conference leader, and Ayyildiz ranks second.

The bigger question for Friday is who runs in the distance medley relay at the end of the day. On paper, Oregon has more bodies available to use in the DMR than Washington.

Perhaps the event of the women's competition is the pole vault, featuring Amanda Moll of the Huskies, the first collegian to ever clear 16 feet, against twin sister Hana, the defending NCAA indoor champion, and Chloe Timburg of Rutgers, the defending NCAA outdoor champ. Throw into the mix Tori Thomas of Illinois, who's cleared 15 feet this season, and you have an event worthy of an NCAA final.

The women's pole vault will be contested Friday at 4:00 pm Eastern (1 pm Pacific).

Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) is streaming both days of the Big Tens, along with Big Ten Plus ($).

The meet's championship central is available here.

BIG SKY PREVIEW...

EWU's Maddy Shekhawat is one of the Big Sky
Conference's top 60m hurdlers (Paul Merca photo)

Eastern Washington is off to Flagstaff, Arizona for the Big Sky Conference championship meet at the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome, which begins with the multis on Thursday.

Several Eagles could make an impact on the podium, including sprinters Kristian Phennicie (60m), Daniel Gaik (400m), and Maddy Shekhawat (60H) on the men's side; and pole vaulter Suzi Woodall, Egypt Simmons in both the long and triple jumps, Kimberly Smith in the long jump, Azaria Purdy in the triple jump, and Dyvhine Fonoti in the women's weight throw.

Simmons is the defending Big Sky indoor champ in both the long and triple jumps.

Northern Arizona is the overwhelming favorite to win both the men's and women's team titles.

Cashmere native Rob McManus is ranked number two in the mile at an altitude-adjusted 3:53.59, and fifth in the 3000 at 7:54.78.

ESPN+ ($) is offering live streaming of the meet. The Big Sky Conference's championship central, which includes links to live results and the meet schedule, is available here.

WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE PREVIEW...

If you're expecting Seattle University to have much of an impact in what is quite frankly not a good conference, good luck.

Seattle University travels across the state for the Western Athletic Conference championship meet at The Podium in Spokane beginning Friday.

The Redhawks have been bottom feeders for the rest of the WAC the last few seasons, with both the men's and women's teams finishing eleventh the previous three seasons.

While the Redhawks lead the conference in the women's distance medley relay at 12:00.45, and are the defending champions, very few teams in the conference have bothered to run it in meets this season.

The Redhawks who could make an impact in the conference championship meet are 800 runner Osaze Demund in the men's 800 (1:50.91), Alisha Saucedo (2:12.31) in the women's 800; Lillianne Hargreaves in the mile and 3000 (4:50.32/9:36.11); Azalea Groleau in the 3000 (9:41.85); and triple jumper Manthita Wague (37-8/11.48m).

This edition of the WAC is expected to be SeattleU's final foray into indoor track as it moves to the West Coast Conference next season, which does not sponsor either indoor or outdoor track.

SeattleU is moving to a distance-only model, but will not sponsor indoor track moving forward, unlike Gonzaga and Portland.

The link to live results is available here.

NOTE: The Big Ten, Big Sky, and Western Athletic Conference, along with the sports information offices of the University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, and Seattle University contributed to this report.

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