The Basics
            The Shockers have a lighter week ahead with most athletes taking the week off ahead of the homestretch of the schedule.
            Of those competing, all but two participants will stay put for the WSU Invitational on Thursday and Friday inside the Heskett Center.
            Winny Koskei and Rebekah Topham travel to Seattle for the UW Invitational. Koskei will run in the 5,000 meters Friday and Topham will run in the 3,000 meters Saturday in fields full of the country's elite distance runners along with professionals.
 
FOLLOW THE MEET
            Fans can follow along with updates on Twitter @GoShockersTFXC. A full recap of each day will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and GoShockers.com.
            Live results for the WSU Invitational can be found at http://results.tfmeetpro.com/Goddard_Schools/Wichita_State_College_Invitational/.
 
Meet Schedule
            The WSU Invitational kicks off on Thursday at Noon with the women's pentathlon. Competition starts with the 60-meter hurdles and events will go back-to-back after that. The men's heptathlon starts at 12:30 p.m. with the 60 meters. Three events of the heptathlon will also occur on Friday.
            Friday's action in the Heskett Center begins at 10 a.m.with the weight throw. Running events are scheduled for 2 p.m.
            A full schedule can be found at GoShockers.com.
            In Seattle, the 5,000 meters will be run on Friday as early 6:50 p.m. CT. The 3,000 meters will be run on Saturday as early as 4:05 p.m. CT. The time depends on what heat Koskei and Topham are entered in.
 
Last Time Out
            Two records were set last weekend at the Jayhawk Classic and the Prairie Wolf Invitational.
            JD Prinsloo set the Wichita State school record in the 600 meters with a time 1:20.94 in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the Prairie Wolf Invitational. 
            Rebekah Topham set the Anschutz Pavilion facility record in the 1,000 meters. She clocked in with a time of 2:49.87 to put her name in the record books.
            Kendra Henry set a new personal best in the pentathlon in Lawrence. She competed the five-event contest with 3,663 points and won the shot put and high jump on her way to an individual victory.
            Paul Garcia ran in three races at the Prairie Wolf Invitational and won all three of them. She won the 60 meters' prelim and final along with the 200 meters.
 
Distance Coach Kirk Hunter on the Meet
On the goals and expectations for this weekend
"Winny's running the 5K on Friday night and Rebekah's running the 3K on Saturday. The goals are obviously to PR, but with those two, you can never count out the possibility that they get a qualifying mark for indoor. That's the reason we're going. It's to try and get an NCAA qualifier."
 
On what makes Seattle an ideal place to run
"I don't believe it's the track for anybody to qualify for NCAAs. I believe it's the competition. In that part of the world, there are a lot of good distance runners, so it's easy for an Oregon to go up there and run on that track. Don't get me wrong, it's a great track and a fast track, but the competition is there. The thing for us is that we have to travel to face the competition."
 
On what training looks like on a lighter week
"We ramped it up. We did some intense workouts, and we'll get some more intense workouts in on Friday for those kids that aren't competing. We're getting ready for those big meets coming up like Husker for my group (distance runners) and we've got some kids going to Iowa State. We're all over the place. We're getting to the time of year where we want to run fast times and prepare ourselves to race well at conference."

Homeward Bound
            Most of the Shockers will have the week off, but most of the competing athletes will stay put in Wichita and compete at the WSU Invitational.
            The entries are filled with small college athletes, but the pentathlon and heptathlon entries have Shockers all over the place. Nine men on the Shocker roster are entered for the heptathlon and five women on the Wichita State roster are entered in the pentathlon.
            The throws group will be out in full force with Alex Adams leading the women in the weight throw as the top seed in the event.
            Mason Buckmaster is in the men's high jump entry list. He started his season tying his PR and will have another shot at upping that mark.
            Emily Gardiner is slated to make her debut in the pole vault. Margaux Thompson and Alyssa Wheeler are also slated to compete.
 
A Husky Task In Seattle
            Rebekah Topham and Winny Koskei will head to Seattle to run in the UW Invitational. Topham will run in the 3,000 meters and Koskei will run in the 5,000 meters.
            Meets that are in Seattle and hosted by Washington are typically run with the country's elite distance runners and some professional athletes.
            Entry standards are typically fast to keep the field of athletes with faster times.        
            Nineteen of the 32 qualifiers for the 2019 NCAA Indoor 3,000 meters ran their qualifying mark in Seattle and eight of the 32 qualifiers in the national 5,000 meters ran their times in Seattle.