Huskies advance nine runners to Saturday's B1G Ten indoor finale...

INDIANAPOLIS--
While both Washington track and field squads did not have athletes that factored into the scoring in any of the finals contested Friday at day two of the B1G Ten Indoor Track & Field Championships at Fall Creek Pavilion on the Indiana State Fairgrounds, the Huskies advanced nine athletes into Saturday's finals.

The Huskies advanced four of their five entries in the men's mile, led by auto qualifiers Reuben Reina Jr (UW Athletics photo) and Tyler Bilyard.

In the first of three heats, Bilyard took Oregon's Elliott Cook to the line, finishing second in 4:00.69, 2/100ths of a second behind Cook.

The following heat saw Reina finish a comfortable second to Oregon's Tomas Palfrey, running 4:04.73 to Palfrey's 4:04.40.

The Huskies got time qualifiers to Saturday's final from Thomas Diamond, who was third in heat 3 in 4:01.76, and from Josiah Tostenson in the first heat, where he finished fourth in 4:02.99.

Tostenson, the freshman from Bend, got the final spot into the finals. 

Freshman Owen Powell, the other Husky entry, was fifth in heat 2, running 4:07.63.

One of the biggest surprises of the day came in the women's mile, where the Huskies' Josie Welin set a personal best in finishing third in the first heat, running 4:38.86.

The women's 800 saw all three Washington entries advance to the finals, led by defending champ Chloe Foerster, who won heat 3 in 2:04.05.

Freshman Chloe Symon finished second in heat 2 in 2:05.06, as Penn State's Hayley Kitching won in a meet record 2:03.19.

In the first heat, the Huskies' Jenica Swartz finished third in 2:05.45, then had to watch and wait for the other two heats to finish. Swartz ended up obtaining the final time qualifier for Saturday.

NCAA Division III 400 champ Alex Rhodes of the Dawgs advanced to his first B1G Ten final in his specialty, running 46.51 to finish second in his heat behind UCLA's Gabriel Clement's 46.26.

Rhodes earned the final qualifying spot to Saturday's final, which will be contested as a two-section final.

One day after finishing second in the pentathlon, Puyallup native JaiCieonna Gero-Holt of the University of Illinois finished fifth in the women's high jump, clearing 5-11.25 (1.81m).

Her Illini teammate Rose Yeboah won with a best of 6-1.5 (1.87m).

After five of eighteen events in the men's competition, Oregon leads with 48 points, while Washington is tied for eleventh with the 9 points from the DMR and the 5000.

On the women's side, Washington is in third place with 32 points thanks to the points from the pole vault, DMR and pentathlon. Illinois leads the competition heading into Saturday with 74 points, ahead of Oregon's 42.

Besides all of Friday's track qualifiers, the Huskies will have a number of competitors in the field, led by collegiate leader Jimmy Rhoads in the men's pole vault, alongside Eli Gault-Crabb. Washington has two entries in both the men's and women's triple jump and men's high jump.

Washington has four entries in the final of the women's 3000--Mia Cochran, Chloe Foerster, Chloe Symon, and Julia David-Smith. While it's unofficial, it's expected that UW will scratch Josie Welin out of the first section, which is before the women's mile final.

In the men's 3000, Parker Mong, Nathan Neil, and Isaac Briggs are entered in the second section, while Josiah Tostenson is in the first section. Like Welin, it's projected that Tostenson will scratch after making the final of the mile.


Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) and Big Ten Plus ($) will stream the meet starting at 8:30 am Pacific each day.

USATF INDOOR CHAMPS BEGIN SATURDAY IN STATEN ISLAND...

While the collegians are busy at the B1G Ten, Big Sky and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation meets, the pros are at the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex in Staten Island, New York for Saturday and Sunday's USATF Indoor Championships.

Action gets underway at 8:30 am with the livestream on USATF.tv ($) Saturday, and on USATF.tv before the Peacock/NBC Sports TV window that starts at 10 am Sunday.

The Brooks Beasts have Valery Tobias and Teagan Schein-Becker in the women's 800. On the men's side, Brannon Kidder and Isaiah Harris are entered in the 800. 

Kayley DeLay goes in the women's 3000, while Waleed Suliman is in the men's 3000.

From UW coach Andy Powell's pro group, Joe Waskom and Sam Ellis are entered in Saturday's men's 800 prelims. 

Sam Prakel (with Nathan Green/Paul Merca photo) is entered in Saturday's 3000 final, then will double up in Sunday's 1500 final. He'll be joined by UW alum Nathan Green in the 1500.

Also competing Saturday are Mill Creek native Grant Grosvenor in the men's 800 prelims, recent UW grad Scott Toney in the men's pole vault, and former Seattle Pacific All-American Kaylee Mitchell in the women's 3000.

Washington alum Nastassja Campbell is entered in Sunday's women's pole vault, while another UW alum, Luke Houser, looks to make his second straight world indoor championship team in the men's 1500.

Washington State alum Ray Ray Wells also looks to make his second straight world championship team in the 60 meter dash on Sunday. He'll be joined by Central Washington freshman Colton Magruder.

Central Washington alum E'Lexis Hollis is entered in the women's 60 meter dash.


NOTE: The B1G Ten, the sports information offices of the University of Washington, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.

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