College Sprints Headline UW Indoor Preview

By Adam Kopet, DyeStat Editor

Accepted entries have been released for this weekend's UW Indoor Preview, the first major indoor meet on the west coast, held at the University of Washington at the Dempsey Indoor. Paul Merca highlighted a few of the key races on his blog.

The women's 60-meter dash is stacked with Kennadi Bouyer of Washington and the Oregon trio of Hannah Cunliffe, Deajah Stevens and Ariana Washington. Cunliffe has not raced since since a hamstring injury derailed the finish to her outdoor season at the NCAA West Preliminaries last year. Cunliffe finished second and Bouyer eighth in the 60 at last year's NCAA Indoor Championships. Stevens and Washington both made major impacts in the sprints outdoors.

On the men's side, Marcus Chambers and DaMarcus Simpson, both from Oregon, line up in the 60. Chambers is dropping down from his usual 400-meter distance and Simpson is stepping off the long jump runway to take a place in the starting blocks.

The women's 600 features stars Olivia Baker from Stanford and Oregon's Raevyn Rogers. Rogers is a three-time NCAA champion over 800. Lauren Wallace of the NorCal Distance Project is also in the race.

Other top collegians competing include Alaysha Johnson and Sasha Walllace of Oregon in the 60-meter hurdles and 200, Amy-Eloise Neale of Washington in the 1,000, Colby Gilbert of Washington in the mile and Valarie Allman of Stanford in the weight throw. The women's pole vault includes three of the past four Pac-12 champions in Kristine Felix of Washington State, Elizabeth Quick of Washington and former Huskies standout Kristina Owsinski, who is competing unattached.

There are several interesting races from a professional standpoint. The women's 3,000 includes Kim Connelly, Kate Grace, Leah O'Connor and Brie Felnagle, training partners with the NorCal Distance Project. They will be up against middle distance heavyweight in 2016 World Indoor 1,500 champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands in her debut with the Nike Oregon Project. Eighth-grader Grace Ping from Utah is also racing.

Shaquille Walker of the Brooks Beasts is racing the 600 and Eric Jenkins and Matthew Centrowitz of the Nike Oregon Project are racing. Jenkins is scheduled for the 1,000 and mile and Centrowitz is entered in the 3,000.