BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University track & field program enters a busy week of competition with student-athletes competing at four locations on Friday and Saturday, including two meets in California.
Of the four meets on the schedule for the weekend, three are two-day meets spanning Friday and Saturday. The Vikings will compete at the Stanford Invitational, hosted at Cobb Track and Angell Field on the Stanford campus, and the San Francisco State Distance Carnival, hosted at Chabot College, in California. WWU will also travel north of the border for the University of British Columbia Open at Rashpal Dhillon Oval, held Friday and Saturday, along with sending student-athletes to Tacoma for the University of Puget Sound Shotwell Invitational at Baker Stadium on Saturday.
The Stanford Invitational, first held in 1975, begins with field events at 9 am on Friday and track events at 11:30 am. Friday’s track events are scheduled to continue until the completion of the final race, which is set to get underway at 10:55 pm. The last scheduled field event on Friday is set for 6:15 pm. Saturday’s competition begins at 9 am with field events and 11 am with track events, continuing through the completion of the last scheduled field event (scheduled for 5 pm) and track event (scheduled for 5:50 pm).
The San Francisco State Distance Carnival, in its 11th year, features jumps and distance events on Friday with throws, sprints, hurdles, relays and middle distance events on Saturday. Action is scheduled to start with track events and field events both beginning at 9 am, continuing throughout the day until approximately 9:30 pm. On Saturday, competition resumes with track and field events each starting at 9 am, and the track events continuing until approximately 7 pm.
The UBC Open begins with field events at 10:10 am on Friday and track events at 11 am. Competition Friday continues through the final track event of the day set for 5:55 pm and the final field event set for 5:50 pm. The majority of the events take place Friday, as Saturday exclusively features decathlon and heptathlon events in the morning and early afternoon with a trio of Vikings competing in the decathlon over the two days.
After opening the outdoor season at the UPS Ed Boitano Invitational on March 3, WWU returns to UPS for the Shotwell Invitational on Saturday. The meet starts with field events at 10 am and track events at 12 pm. The last scheduled track event is set to start at 5:50 pm.
Live results are available to follow the action at the Stanford Invitational, San Francisco State Distance Carnival andUPS Shotwell Invitational. The Stanford Invitational and San Francisco State Distance Carnival will also be streamed via FloTrack (subscription required).
In the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national rankings the WWU women are among the top 25 at No. 21, after being ranked No. 17 last week. The WWU men were ranked No. 32 in the first national poll and rank No. 40 during the current week. The WWU men enter the weekend ranked No. 8 in the most recent West Region USTFCCCA poll while the WWU women rank No. 12 in the region.
WWU most recently competed at the Seattle Pacific University Doris Heritage Track Festival last Saturday, with nine event winners. Three Vikings improved upon previous NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying performances and three program top-10 marks were added to WWU lists.
Senior Anna Paradee (Tacoma, WA/Decatur) improved her provisional-qualifying mark in the pole vault while sophomore Raquel Pellecer (Sandy, OR/Portland State) and freshman Natalie Vetto (Kirkland, WA/Lake Washington) each improved upon provisional-qualifying marks in the javelin. Click to view a full recap and results.
Through three outdoor meets for the season, WWU has posted five provisional-qualifying marks – three for the women and two for the men – and added eight marks to the outdoor WWU top-10 lists (six for the women, two for the men). The Vikings also have 57 marks ranking among the top 10 in the GNAC (24 for the women and 33 for the men), including 32 among the top five (19 for the men, 13 for the women), with four GNAC-leading performances.
WWU has been honored with four GNAC weekly awards during the outdoor season, including two honors forPellecer.
· GNAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week (March 5): Raquel Pellecer (So., Sandy, OR/Portland State)
· GNAC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week (March 12): Raquel Pellecer (So., Sandy, OR/Portland State)
· GNAC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week (March 12): Alex Barry (Jr., Sequim, WA)
· GNAC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week (March 12): Bryant Welch (Fr., Burien, WA/Mount Rainier)