Track heads to Stanford for spring break

After the Big Sky Indoor Track Championships comes a short break for members of Portland State’s track team. Two weekends later is the first meet of the outdoor season.

The events outdoor are more assorted from those indoors.

The Stanford Invitational is one of the main meets on the schedule for the Vikings this season.

“This is really one of the biggest meets on the West Coast, it’s primarily used to qualify the distance runners,” head coach Tony Veney said.

The meet runs for two days. On Friday, the times must be met for an exclusive pack of the fastest runners around. Then on Saturday, the field is open to wider range of times, however there is still a standard set for times to qualify.

“This is a really fast track. I like it because it gives our sprinters a chance to run in warm weather. Because its during spring break, we can just eat, sleep and run for three days straight and not have schoolwork to worry about,” Veney said.

Most Pac-10 schools attend this meet, along with many other Division I and Division II schools. Teams from the Mountain West and WAC compete also. BYU, Long Beach State, California and Stanford are a few in attendance. There are also athletes who individually compete for sponsorship. Representative athletes from Reebok and Nike come and compete against other collegiate athletes adding more talent to the field. The Stanford Invitational meet will take place on March 29 and 30 in Palo Alto, Calif.