The Washington track and field team will be counting on its endurance rather than its speed this weekend as they head to California to compete in the 2007 Stanford Invitational held on the Cobb Track and Angell Field. The meet is known as one of the premier distance running focus meets in the country, and will host many of the top teams from across the country such as Alabama and Texas, as well as all of the Pac-10 teams.

Twelve teams that were recently ranked in Trackwire’s Top-25, a list of team rankings based on the projected finish at NCAAs, will be present this weekend on the women’s side and nine on the men’s side. The Washington men are No. 12 according to Trackwire, while the women are not ranked.

“This is a well-known meet among distance runners,” junior Austin Abbott said. “It’s a big meet, and there will be a lot of good teams there.”

Abbott and his distance team mates will be heading down south on Thursday to compete in the two-day meet. Competition will begin Friday morning with the women’s 5000-meter run, and will begin Saturday with the women’s 400-meter dash.

The Cobb Track is nationally known as one of the premier middle distance and distance tracks in the country. For this reason, the Stanford Invitational has a distance carnival Friday and Saturday night that features the women’s 1,500-meter run and the men’s 10,000-meter run. The meet is primed for some fast competition, as last year’s meet produced 256 NCAA Division I automatic or regional qualifiers.

“I want to get an outdoor personal record in the 1500,” Abbott said. “My strategy is to beat everyone in the last 100. If I focus on the win, the time will take care of itself.”

Winning should be a challenge for the Huskies this weekend as the Stanford Invitational has hosted past champions such as Olympians Gail Devers and Maurice Green. Due to the invitational status of the meet, team scores will not be kept. Instead, competitors will have to use each other to achieve personal records and NCAA qualifying marks.

After just completing an indoor season, the Washington track and field team is also in an intensive part of their training.

“We’re in a tough part training wise,” Abbott said. “We’re starting to mix high intensity into things. But coach gets us ready to race while we’re doing all this stuff at the same time.”

Joining the distance runners will be the Husky throwers and jumpers. Also adding to the competition will be the western United States’ top prep boys and girls track and field athletes. This adds not only to an extremely talented field, but also a high quantity of athletes.

Reach reporter Rebecca Rogers at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.