UW Invitational Brings Stellar Field To Dempsey

Friday, January 31

Seattle, WA

1:00 PM

University of Washington

UW Invitational

January 29, 2020 | Track & Field

By: UW Athletic Communications

UW Invitational
Friday-Saturday - Jan. 31-Feb. 1
Dempsey Indoor

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SEATTLE – The Dempsey will be one of the focal points of the indoor track world this Friday and Saturday as Washington hosts the annual UW Invitational, one of the biggest and best meets of the 2020 calendar. Multiple Olympians are scheduled to compete on Montlake this weekend in addition to teams from all around the nation, and some NCAA-leading Huskies.

Runnerspace.com will provide a live stream of the meet for a subscription fee. Spectator admission is 10 dollars and admission is free for seniors, children 10 and under, and Husky students.

This weekend marks the first meet of the home season where the women's pentathlon, men's heptathlon, distance medley relays and 5,000-meters will be contested. All those events take place on Friday, with the men's heptathlon starting things off at 1 p.m. on Friday. The first several hours on Friday will feature only the multis, until 60m hurdles prelims start at 3 p.m. The DMRs cap the first day at 6:30 for the women and 7:00 for the men.

Saturday is schedule to begin at 10 a.m., and there will be an afternoon section on the track that groups the 60m dash finals, and the top-seeded heats of the m400m, 800m, mile, 3000m, and 4x400m relays into a 90-minute window, starting at 3:45 p.m. with Saturday's action expected to finish around 5:00 p.m.

One of the main draws of the meet will be the participation of the Bowerman Track Club, which includes the likes of U.S. Olympian and reigning U.S. Champion Shelby Houlihan (entered in the 800m and mile), multiple NCAA-champion Karissa Schweizer (mile and 3k), U.S. Olympian Kate Grace (3k), U.S. Olympian Colleen Quigley (3k), U.S. Olympian Courtney Frerichs (3k), recent Stanford grad Vanessa Fraser (3k), and Gwen Jorgensen (5k) on the women's side. Men's BTC athletes include U.S. Olympian Evan Jager (mile), Sean McGorty (3k), and Marc Scott (5k).

Just a few of the teams traveling to the Dempsey this week in some form, whether with full squads or just a couple select athletes, include: Arizona, Boise State, Butler, BYU, California, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Idaho, Iowa, Iowa State, Long Beach State, Nebraska, Northwestern, Oregon State, Portland, San Diego State, San Francisco, Seattle U., SPU, Southern Utah, UCLA, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, Washington State, Western Washington, and Wichita State.

Washington's weekend begins with the multis, as junior Hannah Rusnak is scheduled to make her season debut in the pentathlon. The men's heptathlon will feature the first multi efforts of the year for Parker Kennedy and true freshman Ollie Thorner, in a field with former Husky Olympian Jeremy Taiwo and British Olympic hopeful Tim Duckworth.

A big race to watch will then be the women's DMR, heat three at 7:40 p.m. on Friday, where the Huskies will try to post a fast time to make a return trip to NCAAs. The lineup is expected to include Allie Schadler, a DMR First Team All-American last year, plus new 800m school record-holder Carley Thomas in her Dempsey debut, and All-American Katie Rainsberger on the 1,600-meter anchor, along with a TBD 400-meter leg.

Friday will also feature Angel Nkwonta in her first weight throw since breaking the Husky school record two weeks ago. Nkwonta will be in the third of three flights, starting at approximately 5 p.m. on Friday.

Husky sprinters set to go this week include Aaliyah Wilson in the 60-meters and 60-meter hurdles and 200-meters, Imani Apostol and Olivia Ribera in the 400-meters along with Darhian Mills and Sarah Stavig unattached. The men will have Khalil Winfrey in the 60m and 200m, and Evan Mafilas and Jason Palmer in the 200m and 400m.

In the mid-distances, freshman Marlena Preigh will get her first 800-meter run after running the fastest 600-meters by a Husky two weeks ago. Redshirt freshman Madison Heisterman will join her in the sixth heat of the 800m with Kelly Makin also in heat four. Sophomore Cass Elliott, coming off a 600m win at the Indoor Preview, is joined in the top men's 800m section by junior Devan Kirk and freshman Daniel Maton.

The women's mile will be a marquee event as usual, with Rainsberger and Schadler entered in the top section along with a large group of pros and post-collegiates. Haley Herberg and Shona McCulloch are in earlier heats of the mile as well.

After reaching 200 total sub-four-minute miles last meet, expect the Dempsey to get a jumpstart on 300 this week with some loaded heats full of sub-four PRs. Mick Stanovsek will be in the top section looking for his third sub-four as a Husky and to improve his time for NCAA Indoor qualification. In that heat will be freshman Sam Tanner in his first collegiate mile, as well as senior transfer Sam Ritz, and a new addition to the roster, former D-II NCAA mile champion Dustin Nading. Volunteer assistant coach Sam Prakel also is in the top heat, while in the second-fastest section Isaac Green and Alex Slenning are entered along with volunteer coach Amos Bartelsmeyer.

In the women's 3k, freshman Mel Smart is slated to run her first race since earning All-America honors in the fall, and will be joined by Kaitlyn Neal, McCulloch, Hannah Waskom, Anna Gibson and Kiera Marshall. The men's 3,000-meters will feature senior Tanner Anderson in his first race since posting a big PR in the 5k back in December. He'll be in the top heat along with Jack Rowe, UW's top finisher at NCAA cross country in the fall. Slenning is entered in the second-fastest section with freshman Luke Houser, and NCAA XC scorer Julius Diehr. The only Husky slated to run the 5k on Friday is sophomore Tibebu Proctor.

Every chance to watch Olivia Gruver in the Dempsey is a chance to be savored, and the current NCAA leader will vault again this Saturday along with Annika Dayton, Makenna Barton, Ashleigh Helms, and Kim Kramers. The men's vault features Chase Smith and Zach Shugart, both coming off strong openers, as well as redshirt freshman Samuel Care and freshman Donald Jones. Bryce Fausset had his best high jump in three years in the opener and he will look to top that on Saturday.

Jaylen Taylor opened his season with an indoor PR two weeks ago and he will go again in the triple jump as well as the long jump. Sam Richmond will long jump for the men and women's long jump will feature Jelani Heath, who won the Indoor Preview, and Aaliyah Wilson in her first long jump competition since high school.

Nkwonta will throw the shot as well as the weight this weekend. Redshirt freshman Makayla Kelby made the indoor top-10 list in the shot two weeks ago and will try to climb higher this week. Ginny Mehl will also compete in both the shot and weight, and freshman Beatrice Asomaning is in the weight throw.

Jose Padilla is entered in the shot along with Jonah Wilson, unattached once again after throwing 64-7 1/4 two weeks back. Connor Jost and Elijah Mason will look to build off their weight throw openers.