Nearly 30 WSU athletes will compete in the Last Chance College Elite Meet Friday at the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle.

Wayne Phipps, director of cross-country and track and field, said the 26 athletes competing are the pole-vaulters, distance runners and a few throwers.

Last weekend, some athletes, including the pole-vaulters, did not get a chance to compete. Typically, the distance runners compete about once every two weeks. Some have raced once and others have yet to race at a meet, he said.

“I think there’s a level of confidence to coming off a good performance a week or two prior to a championship,” Phipps said. “Always, always helps.”

Tentatively, the meet will start at 2 p.m. with the women’s weight throw followed by the men’s weight throw. The women’s shot put and men’s shot put will follow. At 3 p.m. the women’s pole vault, women’s long jump and men’s long jump will start, followed by the men’s pole vault at 4:30 p.m.

The running events will start at 4 p.m. with the women’s 600-meter dash. The men’s distance medley relay starts at 6:45 p.m. and will conclude the running events for the meet.

The last chance meet used to happen after the conference championship weekend, which for WSU is the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, Phipps said. Often there’s a weekend between conference championships and the NCAA championships, which is where the last chance meet used to happen.

However, he said it didn’t seem like a fair way to finalize the competition as too many athletes were qualifying to the NCAA championships in that meet.

“Although this is called a last chance meet at UW, it’s basically your last meet prior to your conference championships,” Phipps said.

This is the last meet before MPSF Indoor Championships on Feb. 22-23 at the Dempsey Indoor Facility in Seattle.