Large Group Of Huskies Heads To Stanford Invite

STANFORD INVITATIONAL
Apr. 2-3 | Stanford, Calif. | Cobb Track & Angell Field

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SEATTLE - Just one destination awaits the Husky track and field team this week as UW assembles its largest group yet to head to the Bay Area for the 2021 Stanford Invitational, held this Friday and Saturday, Apr. 2-3, at Cobb Track & Angell Field.

All of Washington's event areas will be traveling save for the throws group, which competed twice in the opening week of the outdoor season. Friday the first field events get going at 3:30 p.m. and the first track events are at 8 p.m. Saturday's long day of action starts at 9:30 a.m. with field events and the first track event is at 10, with action wrapping up around 5 p.m.

The Stanford Invitational, known for producing many of the NCAA's best times in the distance running events, will have a much smaller field this year due to Covid-19 protocols. Still the fields should be highly competitive and another great opportunity for the Huskies to move up the descending order lists. The UW men's team has already come out swinging in its first handful of meets, going to No. 7 in the USTFCCCA Ratings Index this week.

Thirteen schools will be represented: Washington, Stanford, Air Force, California, Hofstra, Iona, Long Beach State, Sacramento State, San Jose State, UC Davis, UCLA, USC, and Utah State.

Friday's competition will feature Huskies in the women's pole vault, and men's and women's long jumps and on the track, the Dawgs will race in the steeplechases, women's 5k, and men's 10k.

Makenna Barton is in the pole vault, the long jump features Lauren Heggen, Ida Eikeng, Hannah Rusnak, and Lyndsey Lopes, and the men's long jump has Ollie Thorner.

The big entry of intrigue on Friday is All-American Katie Rainsberger entered in the steeplechase, what would be her first time running the event. There wouldn't be much crowding around the barriers as Rainsberger is one of just two entries, but how the 12-time All-American takes to the new challenge will be exciting to see.

The men's steeplechase will be fuller, with Pac-12 scorers Alex Slenning and Julius Diehr racing the event for the first time in two years, along with redshirt freshman Joe Waskom making his steeple debut along with redshirt freshman Sam Affolder, who paced a race in Raleigh last week but would be essentially making his collegiate debut.

The women's 5k has cross country standouts Haley Herberg and Naomi Smith entered after they opened outdoors with 1,500m runs last week. In the men's 10k, doing late night work in a race that starts at 9:20, is Tibebu Proctor.

Saturday features all the sprints action, and the mid-distance events, plus the men's high jump (Parker Kennedy), men's vault (Thorner, Kennedy, Zach Shugart), and men's and women's triple jumps (Jaylen Taylor and Lauren Heggen).

In the women's sprints, Olivia Ribera and Victoria Gersch are entered at both 400-meters and 200-meters. The women's 200-meters also will feature the multis group of Lopes, Rusnak, Eikeng, and Heggen. All-American Darhian Mills is in her specialty, the 400-meter hurdles, while Eikeng, Lopes and Rusnak will all be in the 100m hurdles. 

On the men's side, Kemuel Santana and Evan Mafilas will double in the 400m and 200m. Julian Body and Jonathan Birchman will also double, in both hurdles events, with Parker Kennedy in the 110m hurdles as well. 

In the men's 1,500-meters, the Huskies have six of the ten entries in the first heat, with Mick Stanovsek looking to build on his No. 4 time in UW history from a week ago, leading a group that includes Daniel Maton, Andrew Jordan, Luke Houser, Isaac Green, and Leo Daschbach.

Indoor and Cross Country All-American Allie Schadler is scheduled for her outdoor season debut on Saturday in a loaded 1,500-meters top heat that also features Madison Heisterman, Kelly Makin, Marlena Preigh, and Anna Gibson, in her first competition of the 2020-21 year. Freshman Sophie O'Sullivan, a heat winner in Raleigh last week, is entered in heat two.