The race to Eugene begins Wednesday with NCAA West & East Preliminaries...

The race to Eugene and the NCAA Track and Field Championships goes through the regionals.

The NCAA Preliminary Rounds, commonly known as the West and East Regionals, begin Wednesday in College Station, Texas for the West, and Jacksonville, Florida for the East regionals.

At this meet, the only goal is to finish in the top twelve to advance to the national finals in Eugene two weeks later.

Over the next four days, the field of 48 in each event will winnow down to a group of twelve that move on to Eugene.

Similarly, the same deal applies to the East Regional meet in Jacksonville, Florida, where the group of 48 will vie for one of the twelve spots to the nationals in Eugene.

The Huskies lead the way among the four Washington Division I schools that qualified athletes (SeattleU didn't qualify anyone for the tenth straight season), sending 38 athletes (22 men/16 women) with Amina Maatoug (1500/5000), Kaia Tupu-South (shot/discus); Evan Jenkins and Jamar Distel (5000/10000) doubling.

Washington's 42 entries are its most since a record-high 49 in 2021, and its third-highest total overall, trailing the 49 from 2021 and 45 in 2019. It's up from the 39 entries from 2024.

Washington State sends 25 athletes (15 men/10 women) declared, not counting athletes in both the men's and women's 4 x 100 relays not competing in individual events. 

Gonzaga has a group of four men and six women going to College Station, while Eastern Washington's group consists of 110 hurdler Maddy Shekhewat and long/triple jumper Egypt Simmons.

In addition to Washington's four athletes doubling, along with Simmons from Eastern, Washington State's Brooke Lyons (100/200); Mason Lawyer (100/200); and Evans Kurui (5000/10000), and Gonzaga's Wil Smith (5000/10000), Willow Collins (1500/5000), and Jessica Frydenlund (10000/steeple) will double at regionals.

The scheduling format of the Regionals mirrors the national championship meet schedule, with the men and women alternating competition days. The men compete on Wednesday and Friday, while Thursday and Saturday are devoted to the women.

Wednesday and Thursday's competition consists of first round races in all the lane events, plus the 1500, with the second rounds in those events run on Friday and Saturday. On the field, the hammer, javelin, long jump, javelin, and shot puts will be contested the first two days, while the  last two days consist of the discus, triple jump and high jumps.

The 10000s will go on Wednesday & Thursday, while the steeplechase and 5000s go Friday and Saturday.

Athletes going into the West Regionals ranked number one in their events include Washington State's Evans Kurui in the 10000; Washington's Chloe Foerster (Paul Merca photo), who did not compete in the Big Ten Championship meet in the 1500; and, the Huskies' collegiate record holder in the pole vault, Amanda Moll.

The combined events are not contested at the regionals, so Washington's Sofia Cosculluela and Tahoma HS grad Alaina Brady of Notre Dame were advanced directly to nationals based on their number 7 and 9 regular season rankings in the heptathlon on the NCAA descending order list.

In the East region, Seattle's Will Floyd of Georgia is in the men's 400, along with Bellingham's Andre Korbmacher of Florida State in the 110 hurdles. Eastern Washington grad transfer Ryan Rieckmann of Cincinnati will compete in the javelin.

Action on the track at the West regional gets underway Wednesday and Thursday at 4 pm Pacific (6 pm local time), while the hammer begins competition each day at 8 am Pacific. 

ESPN+ ($) will offer live streaming of both regional meets.

The NCAA's central page for the championship rounds, including the schedules and start lists for both regional meets are available here.

WASHINGTON WOMEN DROP TO NUMBER 13 IN PRE REGIONALS RANKING INDEX...

The pre-regionals ranking index saw the Washington women's team drop from number 10 to number 13 in the USTFCCCA Division I pre-regionals national ranking index released Tuesday.

While there was no competition last week, the index released reflects the entries and scratches schools made when declaring for the NCAA Preliminary Round. Since both Sophie O'Sullivan and Chloe Foerster are both out of the 800, their placing points (based on their ranking on the NCAA descending order list) in that event were deleted.

The nation's top five women's teams going into regionals are in order: Georgia, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, USC, and Arkansas.

Big Ten teams in the top 25 include number 8 Oregon, number 12 Illinois, number 17 UCLA, and number 22 Nebraska.

In the men's ranking index, USC remains the nation's number one school, followed in order by: Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and Georgia.

Big Ten teams in the top 25 include number 7 Nebraska, number 9 Minnesota, number 20 Wisconsin, and number 23 Iowa.

Washington State is the highest ranked school at number 40.

The USTFCCCA release is available here.

NOTE: The NCAA and the USTFCCCA contributed to this report.

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