Katie Mackey Earns Team USA Spot For World Relays

SEATTLE - Former Husky great Katie (Follett) Mackey has been named to the U.S. roster for an exciting new event, the inaugural IAAF World Relays Championships, held May 24-25 in the Bahamas.

A total of 55 athletes comprise the relay pools that will represent the red, white and blue at the event, which airs live on Universal Sports from 6:30-9:00 p.m. ET on both days of competition.

The first competition of its kind, the IAAF World Relays Championships consist of the 4x100, 4x200, 4x400, 4x800 and 4x1500 relays on both the men’s and women’s sides. Scheduled for primetime, the World Relays provide the only major world championship for the 2014 outdoor season, as it is an off-year between World Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Mackey is in select company on the U.S. team, as many of the selected athletes are Olympic Games and World Championship gold medalists including the likes of LaShawn Merritt, Sanya Richards-Ross, and Dee Dee Trotter, and other American greats such as Duane Solomon, Leo Manzano, and Kimberlyn Duncan.

A 2010 grad, Mackey earned eight All-America honors as a Husky and won back-to-back Pac-10 titles at 1,500-meters, while also setting the school record of 4:10.66. Track & Field News ranked Mackey sixth in the U.S. at 1,500-meters last year. She currently holds the No. 1 time in the U.S. this year at 5,000-meters, running a PR of 15:04.74 at the Payton Jordan Invitational.

She will be in the pool for the 4x1500m relay along with Kate Grace, Heather Kampf, two-time U.S. champ Morgan Uceny, and Sara Vaughn.

Nearly 50 nations are sending teams to Nassau for the World Relays, which is expected to qualify some teams for the 15th IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.