BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Western Washington University track & field program returns to the Dempsey Indoor facility at the University of Washington for a pair of meets this weekend, marking the last competition dates for the Vikings prior to the GNAC Indoor Championships next weekend.
WWU will be in action at the Husky Classic on Friday and Saturday before competing at the UW Open on Sunday. WWU has 19 entries in the Husky Classic before a larger contingent of Vikings (72 accepted entries, 15 alternate entries) are set to compete at the UW Open.
The Husky Classic begins Friday with both field and track events starting at 4 pm and continuing through the last scheduled event at 8:05 pm. Action resumes Saturday on the track at 9 am while field events begin at 9:30 am. The last scheduled event of the day is set for 5:25 pm.
On Sunday, the UW Open is scheduled to start with field and track events each beginning at 9 am and continuing throughout the day. The last scheduled event is set for 4:55 pm.
The UW Open will be the final competition date for WWU before heading to the GNAC Indoor Championships, hosted by Northwest Nazarene University, on Feb. 16-17 at Jacksons Indoor Complex in Nampa, Idaho. The WWU women placed 6th while the men were 7th at the GNAC Indoor Championships in 2017.
Entering the weekend, the Vikings have recorded one NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying mark and added 23 marks to the WWU indoor top-10 lists. The Vikings also have 16 marks ranking among the top 5 of GNAC performance lists.
Senior Jasmine McMullin (Sequim, WA) recorded a leap 12.00m (39-4 ½) in the triple jump at the season-opening UW Preview to post an NCAA Division II provisional-qualifying mark, which ranks as the 10th-best mark nationally entering the weekend.
At the most recent meet for WWU, the Vikings added four program top-10 marks at the Cougar Indoor. During the meet’s first day, sophomore Chanelle Eddy (Bellingham, WA/Sehome/Whitworth) and freshman Kiana Schwendeman (Bonney Lake, WA) each posted program top-10 marks in the weight throw. Eddy placed 7th (13.78m, 45-2 ½) with the No. 3 mark on the WWU top-10 list while Schwendeman followed in 9th (12.95m, 42-6) with the No. 5 mark on the list.
During the meet’s second day, sophomore Hannah Bradley (Bellingham, WA) recorded a time of 7.98 in the 60m preliminaries to qualify for the finals and rank 8th on the WWU top-10 list. She went on to place 6th in the final. Eddy added a program top-10 mark in the shot put, placing 12th (1.92m, 35-10) to rank in a tie for 6th on the WWU top-10 list.
Also during the meet’s second day on Saturday, sophomore Jewels Oliquiano (Kaneohe, HI/Castle) led WWU in the pole vault by finishing 9th (3.45m/11-3 ¾) for the 7th-best mark in WWU history. Sophomore Cordell Cummings (Arlington, WA) placed 3rd in the 60m hurdles final with a time of 8.46 to record the 7th-best time on the WWU top-10 list.
Coming Up: Following the GNAC Championships next weekend, the Vikings will return to Dempsey Indoor once again for the Seattle Pacific University Final Qualifier on Feb. 24 ahead of the NCAA II Championships (March 9-10). The outdoor season gets underway for WWU with the Ed Boitano Invitational at the University of Puget Sound on March 3.
