BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Western Washington University track & field head coach Pee Wee Halsell has announced the 2018 indoor and outdoor schedules for the Vikings with a total of 23 meets, seven indoor and 16 outdoor, in addition to the national championships meets.
The Vikings will host two meets at Civic Stadium in Bellingham during the 2018 outdoor season with the WWU Quad Meet on April 6 and the 37th Annual WWU Ralph Vernacchia Track & Field Meet on April 28.
The 2018 indoor season starts on Saturday for the Vikings, traveling to the University of Washington for the UW Preview. WWU is scheduled to compete at UW’s Dempsey Indoor facility five times during the indoor season, also competing at the venue during the UW Invitational (Jan. 26-27), UW FloTrack Classic (Feb. 9-10), UW Open (Feb. 11) and the SPU Final Qualifier (Feb. 24). WWU also travels to the Cougar Indoor (Feb. 2-3) at Washington State University during the indoor season.
“It’s a good schedule,” Halsell said. “Dempsey is a good place to go compete and that’s where most of our indoor meets will be, and the WSU meet is another good opportunity. The highlight of the indoor schedule is the conference championships and we have a good group – we have more depth this year, even though it’s young. It’s going to be a good year.”
The 2018 GNAC Indoor Championships are scheduled for Feb. 16-17, hosted by Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. The 2018 NCAA Indoor Championships are set for March 9-10 at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kansas.
The outdoor season begins a week prior to the NCAA Indoor Championships as the Vikings compete at the University of Puget Sound Ed Boitano Invitational on March 3. WWU has a total of seven meets in March and six meets scheduled for April before the GNAC Championships begin.
“With the outdoor schedule, it’s very similar to what it has been before,” Halsell said. “A little different in the fact that we’ve got two home meets, the first being a smaller quad meet with WWU, Seattle Pacific, University of British Columbia and Saint Martin’s. The Vernacchia meet should be a good one as well. I’m excited about the schedule.”
Among the meets during the 2018 outdoor schedule are a pair of trips to California. First, WWU travels to California for the San Francisco State Distance Carnival (March 30-31) and Stanford Invitational (March 30-31). The Vikings return to California in April for the Azusa Pacific Brian Clay Invitational (April 19-20), Mt. Sac Relays/California Invitational Combined Events (April 19-20) and Long Beach State’s Beach Invitational (April 20-21).
“We’ll send a few people to northern California and hopefully get some good marks there,” Halsell said. “The southern California meets will be another good opportunity with good weather, and both California meets are big meets that are strategically scheduled and rich in competition.”
Also on the outdoor schedule for WWU in 2018 are the Pacific Lutheran University Open (March 10), Seattle Pacific University Doris Heritage Distance Festival (March 24), University of British Columbia Invitational (March 30-31), University of Puget Sound Shotwell Invitational (March 31), Saint Martin’s University Invite (March 14) and UW Ken Shannon Invitational (May 4-5).
The 37th Annual Ralph Vernacchia Track & Field Meet at Civic Stadium in Bellingham on April 28 follows the second trip to California and is the last meet before the GNAC Multi Event Championships (April 30-May 1), hosted at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.
The GNAC Outdoor Championships will be hosted by Western Oregon University on May 11-12 in Monmouth, Ore., with the NCAA Outdoor Championships scheduled for May 24-26 at the Irwin Belk Complex in Charlotte, N.C.
The WWU women placed 6th while the men were 7th at the 2016 GNAC Indoor Championships before the men finished 2nd and the women were 5th at the GNAC Outdoor Championships last year.
