No. 17 Arizona men’s and women’s track and field will begin the 2014 indoor season in Flagstaff, Ariz., on Friday. The meet will be at Northern Arizona’s J.L. Walkup Skydome.
The teams will compete against eight teams: ASU, whose men’s team is ranked No. 21 and whose women are No. 23, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Fullerton, Grand Canyon University, UNLV, UC Riverside, Northwestern State University and NAU.
The Arizona women’s team is not currently ranked in the preseason poll while four Pac-12 conference teams are. Oregon is ranked No. 4, Stanford is No. 9, Washington sits at No. 20 and Arizona State is No. 23.
Arizona senior Tamara Pridgett will be competing in the 60-meter dash and sophomore Traci-Lynn Hicks will represent the Wildcats in the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles.
Sophomores Nnenya Hailey, Ali Rodseth and Morgan Struble, senior Amber Passalaqua and freshman Aleah Hurst will join Hicks in the hurdles.
For the women’s field events, Arizona will have four student-athletes competing: Passalaqua, junior Shakayla McEaddy and freshmen Audrey Muir and Lisanne Hagens.
Senior NCAA All-American Alyssa Hasslen, three-time NCAA All-American junior Baillie Gibson and Passalaqua will compete in the women’s shot put competition. Gibson will also compete in the weight throw.
Freshman Avery Mickens and junior Mohammad Alhasan will run the 60-meter dash race for No. 17 Arizona men’s track team. Alhasan will also compete in the 200 meters with junior Branden Helms.
Senior Nick Ross will compete in the high jump. Ross will compete in the long jump as well as multis Pau Tonnesen and Mickens.
Freshmen Jordan Young and Aaron Castle, Tonnesen, multi Harrison Ivie and junior Daniel Whitham will compete in the shot put competition. Young will also compete in the weight throw.
Arizona has two men named to the 2014 Preseason The Bowerman Watchlist: Ross and Lawi Lalang. Lalang was a finalist for the 2013 The Bowerman Watchlist.
The events will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the field events will begin at 4 p.m. The Division I teams will be scored in a double duel format.
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