THE WEEKEND AHEAD: Athlos; Eags, Cougs, Dawgs, Saints, 'Cats in action, plus World Road Champs...
The weekend's schedule of meets starts off in London on Friday with one of the final major invitationals of the track season, as the Athlos LDN all women's meet takes place at StoneX Stadium.
Washington alum Sophie O'Sullivan (Paul Merca file photo) and Juliette Whittaker of the Brooks Beasts are both entered in the 800 meters.
Whittaker was added to the field on Tuesday, according to the meet's official Instagram page, though it has not been updated on their website.
The six woman field includes Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, France's Renelle Lamote, American Raevyn Rogers and Valentina Rosamila of Switzerland.
O'Sullivan and Whittaker are the only ones with Washington ties competing in the meet, which only offers the 100 hurdles, 100, 200, 400, 800, mile and long jump in a 2.5 hour television window.
The meet will be televised starting at 11 am Pacific on iON (Comcast 103 in Seattle; 33.1 over the air antenna). It will also be streamed on ESPN+.
Also on Friday, Eastern Washington heads to Missoula, Montana to compete in the Montana Invitational, hosted by the University of Montana at 5 pm Pacific.
The women will open the meet over 5k, while the men will race 8k 30 minutes later.
In addition to host Montana, the field will include Montana State, Idaho, and Idaho State in what essentially is a test for half of the teams in the Big Sky Conference to compare themselves in advance of the championship meet at the end of October in Flagstaff.
A link to live results has not been posted as of yet, but we will update it when it becomes available.
HUSKIES AND COUGARS OFF TO INDIANA TO PREVIEW NCAA CHAMPS COURSE; CENTRAL & SAINT MARTIN'S AT PLU INVITE, AND WORLD ROAD RUNNING CHAMPS THIS WEEKEND...
Both the University of Washington and Washington State University are off to Terre Haute, Indiana for Saturday's John McNichols Invitational, hosted by Indiana State University at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course, the site of November's NCAA championship meet.
The Cougar squads, both of which are nationally ranked, opened the season last week at their own Cougar Classic, led by individual winners Evans Kurui, who took the men's and Millie Bii, the women's individual champ.
The Cougs ran a 1-5 split of 41 in the women's 5k race, while the men split 1:38.. Both squads sat out several notables last week.
For the Huskies, this is their season opener, after spending nearly three weeks at their pre season training camp in Roslyn, Washington.
The Dawgs suffered a major loss after the end of the 2026 season when 2025 B1G Ten 10000m champ Evan Jenkins, who redshirted the 2025 cross country season, transferred to the University of Oregon. Tyrone Gorze, who also redshirted last cross country season, and Jamar Distel, who was their top finisher at last year's B1G Ten championships, are the top returning runners for coach Andy Powell.
Transfers Theo Schucht from Boston College, Jonathan Podbielski from Regina in Canada, and Zane Bergen from Stanford are the significant adds to the squad. Significant returning runners include Issac Briggs, Thomas Diamond, Nathan Neil, and Josiah Tostenson. Owen Powell, who was redshirted last year, makes his UW cross country debut this season.
On the women's side, Julia David-Smith, who was redshirted last cross country season, returns for her final season of eligibility, along with Mia Cochran, Josie Welin and Ella Borsheim.
They'll be joined by a host of newcomers led by freshmen Sherry Drury from Japan, Milla Roberts from Australia, and Massachusetts native Abby Hennessy. Roberts and Drury were both finalists in the 1500 at the World Athletics U20 championships in Eugene last month, and Hennessy was one of the country's top prep runners in the 1500, mile and 3000.
French grad student Louisa Esmouni and NCAA cross country championship competitor Nicole Bissell from Washington State are among the upperclass transfers to UW.
The women's 6k kicks off the racing at 5:30 am Pacific, with the men's 8k going at 6:05 am Pacific.
Media partner RunnerSpace.com ($) will stream the meet.
Central Washington and Saint Martin's will make the trip to Tacoma for Saturday's PLU Invitational hosted by Pacific Lutheran University.
Central will race their women's team, while Saint Martin's will run both squads in Saturday's meet, which will have a number of NCAA D3, NAIA, and community college squads from Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.
The women's 6k race gets underway at 11:30, and the men's 8k for NCAA schools starts at 12:15 pm.
In Copenhagen, Denmark, the second edition of the World Athletics Road Running Championships gets underway Saturday morning at 1 am Pacific on Peacock ($) with the women's road mile at 1:10 am followed by the men's road mile at the bottom of the hour.
Max Davies of the Brooks Beasts and Washington alum Aaron Ahl will both run the men's mile for Canada, while former Husky Sam Tanner races for New Zealand.
After a break to allow for the mass participation races, the women's 5k race sees Oiselle's Allie Ostrander and Washington alum Chloe Thomas racing for the USA and Canada at 5:10 am Pacific.
On Sunday, the World Road Running Championships conclude with the women's and men's half marathon.
Former Brooks Beast Jessica McClain runs in the women's half marathon at 12:10 am Pacific for Team USA, while Washington alum Jack Rowe races in the men's half marathon starting at 12:45 am Pacific for Great Britain.
NOTE: Athlos, World Athletics, and the sports information offices of WSU, UW, Eastern Washington, Central Washington, and Saint Martin's contributed to this report.
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