Colorado Headed To Husky And Don Kirby

BOULDER – The University of Colorado track and field program will send the distance crew to the 2022 Husky Classic at the University of Washington, while the sprinters will head to the Don Kirby Elite Invitational in Albuquerque this Friday and Saturday.
 
Around 20 distance athletes will compete in every distance 800-meters and above, while the sprints crew of around a dozen will compete in all of the sprints and the 60 hurdles.
 
This will be the first indoor distance showing for most of these athletes in their career for Colorado with the older athletes having not run indoors at sea level since the 2020 MPSF Championships. The men will compete in all four distance events while the women will have athletes in all of the events except the 800.
 
One of the keys to watch is Eduardo Herrera in the men's 3,000. Herrera is currently 23rd in the mile in the NCAA and 47th in the 5,000. He races with Shaw Powell and Jake Derouin while Kyla Christopher-Moody will be the lone women's representative in the race.
 
Most of the distance crew will race in the 5,000s Friday with Andrew Kent, Jace Aschbrenner, Charlie Sweeney, Alec Hornecker and Austin Vancil all scheduled for the men. India Johnson, Emily Covert, Gabrielle Orie and Kaitlyn Barthell are set to race for the women. Vancil, Aschbrenner, Sweeney, Vancil and Covert are all ranked in the top-50 in the NCAA in the 3,000 with Covert leading the way in 31st.
 
Saturday the distance crew switches to the 800 and mile with Ryan Lindrud and Jonathon Horton racing the 800 and Noah Hibbard, Caleb Niednagel, Rachel McArthur and Micaela Degenero in the mile.
 
This is the first of two meets for the distance squad on the Dempsey track with the inaugural Pac-12 Indoor Invitational set for two weeks later.
 
For the sprinters, it is a 400-packed weekend with nine athletes entered in the open 400. Tyler Williams is 45th in the NCAA in the men's 400 and will lead Aaron McCoy, Ian Gilmore, Garrett Nelson, Kellen Monestime and Nick Nuhfer in the two laps around the banked track at the Albuquerque Convention Center. For the women, Abbey Glynn is on the outside looking in at 21st in the NCAA and will race with teammates Jaida Drame and Grace Jenkins.
 
All of the 200 races will compete Friday with Luc Andrada, Monestime, Nuhfer, Emma Pollak, Kaleah Ruff and Reese Renz scheduled. The only other races that day will be the unseeded 400s. On Saturday, things ramp up with Ruff and Andrada in the 60-meter dash while Renz hurdles. Both squads will also try for a fast 4x400-meter relay as both relay teams are ranked in the top-50 in the NCAA.
 
Both meets will be live streamed via paid subscriptions with the Don Kirby on FloTrack and the Husky Classic on Runnerspace.