UW Indoor Preview
Date: Saturday, Jan. 18
Time: 9 a.m. (PST)
Location: Dempsey Indoor - Seattle, Wash.
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IRVINE, Calif. - The UC Irvine women's indoor track & field team will travel to Seattle this weekend for the season-opening UW Preview. The one-day meet will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18, at Dempsey Indoor. The field events are slated for a 9 a.m. start, while action on the track gets underway with the 60m hurdle qualifying round at 9:30 a.m. The Anteaters have 17 individuals entered in 10 events.
 
STORYLINES
• After traveling to the same four indoor meets over the last five seasons, UC Irvine has switched it up in 2020.
• For the first time since 2014, the Anteaters will start the campaign at the UW Preview in Seattle.
• UCI will get an early look at Dempsey Indoor, which is the site of the 2020 MPSF Championships.
• The 'Eaters will also compete in the New Mexico Collegiate Classic for the first time since 2012.
• UC Irvine returns 18 individuals from last year's roster, but only 10 of them competed in an indoor meet.
• The Anteaters also bring in 16 newcomers, including 13 true freshmen.
 
THROWS
• Senior Brianna Villanueva will be chasing recent graduate Barbara Coward's school record in the weight throw.
• Villanueva currently ranks second with a lifetime-best 56-01. She finished 15th at the MPSF Championships in 2019.
• Fifth-year senior Elizabeth Akindele is also looking to move up the charts in the shot put where she is third (45-10.5).
• Sophomore Tayla Crenshaw is slated to make her indoor debut this weekend.
 
SPRINTS/HURDLES
• Sophomore Zani Meaders broke the Anteaters' indoor 400m record last year with a personal-best 55.78.
• Meaders established her top mark at the MPSF Championships where she was 10th out of 47 competitors.
• Junior Sha'Maya Flanagan is expected to challenge Meaders for the 400m record this year.
• Flanagan sat out the 2019 season after transferring from Arizona State where she notched a personal-record 55.04.
• Junior Mikayla Scott also ranks among the program's all-time top-five in the 200m (25.24) and 400m (57.03).
• Senior Mychal Robinson will anchor the hurdles squad after running UCI's third-best 60H time last year (8.61).
 
JUMPS
• UC Irvine has continued to build its jumps squad with the addition of Je'Neal Ainsworth and Crystal Washington.
• Ainsworth is a graduate transfer from San Diego State, and owns an indoor triple jump PR of 40-11.5.
• Washington competed two years at Eastern Michigan where she posted a top-10 triple jump mark of 40-05.
• The duo joins sophomore Lorraine Nance, who recorded UCI's fourth-best indoor mark at 38-01.25.
• Junior Natalie Koppel also returns in the long jump and enters the season at No. 7 in school history (17-11.75).
 
DISTANCE
• Sophomore Hannah Chau is coming off an impressive fall where she earned All-Big West honors in cross country.
• Chau finished fifth at the conference meet and ran the fourth-fastest 6K in program history (20:44.5).
• The Anteaters have solid senior leadership in Anastasia Karnaze, Brenda Dorantes and Mariah Theologidy.
• They also bring in seven newcomers who all competed during the 2019 cross country season.
 
COACH'S CORNER
"I am excited about our potential in both the track and field events. There is a lot more depth in areas that we haven't had in the past, which is the focus and direction I want to move in with our team as a whole." - Head Coach Jeff Perkins
 
UP NEXT
• UCI will make its first trip to Albuquerque, N.M., for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Collegiate Invitational, Jan. 24-25.