Full Forces Head to Biggest Meet of Year

PROVO -- BYU heads to Seattle, Wash. this weekend to compete against some of the toughest schools BYU will face this season in the University of Washington's Invitational.

The Cougars will match-up against the entire PAC-10, including top ranked Stanford, UCLA, USC, Arizona State and Oregon making this weekend one of the biggest meets of the year.

"This weekend we are going to meet the best of the PAC-10," women's head coach Craig Poole said. "They are one of the better conferences in the nation with strong competition in every single event."

Adding to this elite competition will be BYU's own MWC contender Air Force.

"The competition this weekend will challenge us and force us to do the best we have done this season," Poole said.

In addition to good competition, this weekend invitational will be the first time this season the entire Cougar teams will be competing together at the same venue with their athletes in full force.

"For us this is like regionals," men's head coach Mark Robison said. "We will actually have everyone all in one place together and all competing at full strength."

This weekends competition will be the last meet athletes will have to prepare before heading to the MWC Championships Feb. 26-28 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

"We have our best athletes competing against their best," men's head coach Mark Robison said. "In a sense, our performance this weekend will be a direct indication of how we will perform at Nationals next month."

Last time the Cougars ran at the University of Washington this season their distance squads qualified for nationals and broke three school records with their speed.