Brown, Lia to make season debut at home
January 26, 2007
Seven top-25 opponents will grace the track in Dempsey Indoor this weekend as Washington hosts the UW Invitational. The Huskies' 12th ranked men and 18th ranked women will have their work cut out for them, as included in this field will also be over a dozen former NCAA or Pac-10 Conference champions. The action kicks off this evening with the 5,000-meter run, distance medley relay and multi-events. All the other events will be held tomorrow.
The UW Indoor Invitational proves to be one of the best track and field meets in the country, as full teams from some of the top-ranked schools in the country will travel to Seattle to compete. Scheduled to compete are Baylor (No. 8 men), Stanford (No. 1 women/No. 18 men) and Oregon (No. 6 men/No. 16 women), as well as select members from UCLA, Texas Tech, Brigham Young University, Arizona, Minnesota and other highly-ranked Division I teams.
"The competition will add new flavor," said coach Greg Metcalf. "By competing against some of these top teams we see where we are and where we stack up. Plus we like to compete in Seattle."
The Huskies will be ready to rise to the challenge, as some of Washington's best will make their season debut this weekend. Reigning NCAA champions senior Ryan Brown and junior Amy Lia will be competing for the first time this track season for the Huskies at the Invitational. Brown won the NCAA's last year in the 800 meters and Lia in the 1,500. Three-time All-American senior Ashley Lodree will be making her season debut in the hurdles.
"Ashley had good preparation in the fall," Metcalf said. "This meet will be a check point for all these athletes of where they are."
In the men's pole vault, volunteer assistant coach Brad Walker [HTML_REMOVED] who is ranked first in the world right now [HTML_REMOVED] is scheduled to compete. Joining him will be star-studded newcomer Scott Roth from Granite Bay, California. Fellow newcomer Lauren Walker has also been heating things up for the Huskies. The pole vaulter from California topped 11 feet 6 inches at the UW Indoor Preview then followed up with a lifetime best of 12 feet 4 inches at last weekend's Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nev.
Washington track and field teams have made quite a statement in the 2007 Trackwire 25 team rankings, which predict the order of finish at the NCAA Championships by projecting the top-12 finishers in each event. The men are tied with LSU for the 12th spot, while the women are predicted to score 13 points overall and are ranked 18th nationally.
"After all is said and done we potentially have two teams that are better than what we are ranked right now," Metcalf said. "I'm hoping that by the end of the season we will have two top-10 programs."
Reach reporter Rebecca Rogers at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.
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