Event: UW Invitational
Where: Dempsey Indoors – Seattle, Wash.
When: Saturday at 8 a.m.
Who to watch: After years of injury and many surgeries gone wrong, Tolu Wusu is mostly healthy. Mostly.
“I definitely feel 800 percent more ready to handle the stresses I’m soon to put on my body,” Wusu said, “so that feels great. I’m shooting for a 50 (in the triple jump) this meet, but I would love it if Ray (Green) was jumping further than that. I just want to get out there to prove to myself that just because I jump I’m not going to die.“
Did you know? Dempsey Indoors is home to a 300m track that, while shorter than the standard 400m outdoor track, is substantially longer than the more typical 200m indoor ones. This will be especially interesting for the 400m runners on up.
Preview: The men’s track and field team looks to start things off right, as it brings 15 veterans to Washington to compete in Aggie uniforms for the first time in over seven months.
“Everyone is ready,” coach Jon Vochatzer said. “We’re taking a seasoned team. We’re going to walk in and instead of going, ‘Ooh, it’s so cool here,‘ we’re going to be like, ‘Here’s where we’re going to sit, here’s what we’re going to do, let’s do it,‘ and we are going to take care of business.”
The field eventers look to have a strong group. In addition to Green and Wusu, they’ll have Ben Nelson in the high jump, Matt Swarbrick and Ed Orgon in the weight throw and shot put and Joey Farkash in the pole vault.
“Joey has been here five years,” Vochatzer said. “This guy has got to do something and get this thing rolling. He’s ready to go. He’s had some great practices – went 16‘ a lot. He’s ready to go out and really do something.“
On the track, expect a slew of sprinters and hurdlers – including Alex Wilright, Micah Grant, Poly Gnepa and Jazz Trice – to post some quick times and possibly break a record or two. Additionally, sophomore Jonathan Peterson, who redshirted this past cross country season due to injury, should make some noise in the 3,000m.
“In terms of fitness, obviously I’m not at peak performance,” Peterson said, “but hopefully, I’ll be able to get out there and get a good time in. I’d like to be close to eight minutes, but I’m not sure where I stand fitness wise. If there are better guys out there I’ll just try to run them down; whether or not I succeed is another story.“
– Alex Wolf-Root
