Husky Classic, Don Kirby Elite, & Whitworth Invite highlight this weekend's track & field action...

The curtain closes on another season of indoor track and field at the University of Washington's Dempsey Indoor, as the Huskies play host to the Husky Classic Friday and Saturday.

With the Great Northwest Athletic Conference championship meet coming up on Monday and Tuesday in Spokane, Western Washington, Seattle Pacific and Central Washington are sending smaller than usual squads, while Saint Martin's isn't competing.

Gonzaga and Eastern Washington are sending their top athletes. Washington State is sending primarily distance runners to the Husky Classic, and Seattle University is running their top athletes.

Action starts at 1:30 pm with the men's pole vault, and follows with what perhaps might be the best competitive races of the entire weekend, the men's and women's distance medley relays at 1:45 and 2 pm, where, as we wrote in depth yesterday, the collegiate men's and women's records could be in danger.

After some qualifying heats in the 60 hurdles, the 200 meters, and the finals in the hurdles, it's distance races galore, with heats of the 3000s and the 5000, capped with a men's invitational 5000.

The top section of the men's 3000 (section 7) features US Olympian at 10000 meters Nico Young, formerly of Northern Arizona against Washington's Leo Daschbach (hip 1) and Acer Iverson (Paul Merca photo), who went 1-2 in the mile at the UW Invitational two weeks ago.

Throw into the mix BYU's Joey Nokes and Clinger, Young's former NAU teammates Drew Bosley and Colin Sahlman, plus NCAA cross country runner up Habtom Samuel of New Mexico.

US Olympian in the steeplechase, James Corrigan of BYU, is relegated to the second fastest section of the men's 3000, where he'll go against WSU's Evans Kurui, Portland's Matt Strangio, and Washington's Jamar Distel.

The men's 5000 features Stanford's Thomas Boyden, Washington's Tyrone Gorze and Utah Valley's Mohamed Guled. Kurui is entered, but the close turnaround will make it at best, difficult. It's possible the Washington State staff will make a call on race day on whether or not to run Kurui in either the 3000 or 5000, but for now, he's in both races.

Jenna Hutchings of BYU, Zofia Dudek of Stanford, and Zenah Cheptoo of Washington State are the top entries in the women's 5000.

Saturday's session, which begins at 10 am, features the men's invitational mile with Nico Young.  He'll go up against a trio of former Huskies in Olympians Kieran Lumb of Canada and Brian Fay of Ireland, along with last year's NCAA 1500m champ Joe Waskom. 

Also in the mix are New Mexico's Habtom Samuel, Henry Wynne of Seattle's Brooks Beasts, and Australian Jude Thomas.

US Olympic Trials finalist Maggie Congdon of Northern Arizona leads the women's invitational mile field, along with BYU alum Anna Camp-Bennett. Stanford's Amy Bunnage, the NCAA West regional cross country champ. Current BYU standouts Carlee Hansen, Taylor Rohatinsky, and Meghan Hunter are also in the elite field.

Northern Arizona's Colin Sahlman, along with the Husky duo of Justin O'Toole and Kyle Reinheimer lead the field in the men's 800.

US Olympian Juliette Whittaker of Stanford is the headliner in the women's 800, along with Portland's Laura Pellicoro, and Brooks Beast newcomer Teagan Schein-Beckert. Washington's Maggie Liebich looks to get into the mix as well.

The top section of the women's 3000 has a number of All-Americans in the field, led by BYU's Riley Chamberlain and Lexy Halladay-Lowry. They'll face UW All Americans Amina Maatoug and Mia Cochran, along with fellow Huskies Chloe Foerster and Julia David-Smith.

Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) and Big Ten Plus ($) will stream the meet both days if you can't make it to the Dempsey.

The schedule is available here, while the start lists and link to live results are available here.

DON KIRBY ELITE...

While Washington's distance runners are staying in the friendly confines of the Dempsey, its sprints, jumps and throws groups are headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Don Kirby Elite meet Friday and Saturday at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

For the majority of the Huskies going to New Mexico, this will be the toughest test before the Big Ten Championships in two weeks in Indianapolis.

The Huskies will be led by NCAA indoor long jump scorer Prestin Artis, twins Hana and Amanda Moll in the women's pole vault, and men's pole vaulter Scott Toney.

Washington State is sending a small contingent, led by pole vaulter Tatum Moku.

They'll face many of the West's top athletes, including those from Oregon, Oregon State, Stanford, BYU, UTEP, Northern Arizona, and Sacramento State, among others. 

The start list and the time schedule is available here on the New Mexico track & field home page (look under schedule and click on the links under Don Kirby Elite Invitational).

Flotrack ($) will stream both days of the meet.

WHITWORTH INVITATIONAL...

Finally, a small group of athletes from Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, and Washington State will compete in the two-day Whitworth Invitational, hosted by Whitworth University, at The Podium in Spokane.

Friday's session begins at 11:30 am on the track, and Saturday's session begins at 9:25 am.

The primary competition in the field are Division III, NAIA, community college teams and unattached athletes.

For those on the bubble, or did not get to travel with the majority of their teams to Seattle, this is an opportunity to improve marks, and possibly get themselves in contention for a spot on their conference championship teams (Gonzaga is not in a conference for indoor track, while Washington State in in the MPSF, and Eastern Washington is in the Big Sky).

Unlike the Husky Classic, none of Washington's Division II teams will have any representatives at the Whitworth Invitational, because of the short turnaround to the start of Monday's Great Northwest Athletic Conference meet.

Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) will stream both days of the meet.

The link to live results and the time schedule is available here.

MOON WINS IN LIEVIN, WHILE INGEBRIGTSEN BREAKS WR IN 1500 AND MILE (updated 2:20 pm)...

Days after winning the Millrose Games pole vault competition with a world leading mark, former Pullman resident and two time defending world outdoor champion Katie Moon set another world leading mark in winning the pole vault at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF in Lieven, France Thursday night.

Moon, who jumped 15-9.75 (4.82m) at Millrose, went one centimeter higher, clearing 15-10 (4.83m) to finish ahead of world indoor champion Molly Caudery of Great Britain, who cleared a best of 15-7 (4.75m).

The highlight of the meet was the smashing of the world record in the men's mile by Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who ran 3:45.14 to top the previous world record of 3:46.63 set by American Yared Nuguse at the Millrose Games last week.

En route, the Norwegian broke his own world record in the 1500 of 3:30.60, which he set at this same meet last year, going through in 3:29.63.

Ingebrigtsen becomes the first athlete since John Landy in 1954 to set world records for the mile and 1500m in the same race.

Complete results of the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF are available here.

NOTE: The sports information offices of the University of Washington, University of New Mexico, Whitworth University, World Athletics, and Spokane Sports contributed to this report.

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