Washington men's track & field sends 15 athletes to NCAA West Prelims

Washington will send 15 men to the NCAA West Preliminaries in Fayetteville, Arkansas, beginning Wednesday, as the Husky men attempt to punch their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon, next month.

Let's meet the Huskies set to compete this week.

Martin Barco, 1500m

After a stellar freshman season, Barco just missed an NCAA Outdoor bid by finishing 13th at the West Prelims in 3:41.28 last year. He’s seeded 34th this season with a best of 3:40.01, but a tactical set of heats could easily play in Barco’s favor with so many schools sending multiple representatives in the mile. The sophomore will get that advantage in his heat with two teammates joining him.

Tyler Bilyard, 1500m

The 2023 England U23 1500m gold medalist and 2025 UK indoor 1500m bronze medalist, Bilyard broke the school record in the 1000m in his first race as a Husky during the indoor season. He’s seeded 14th this week with a time of 3:37.99, but will have to run unassisted despite having three other Huskies among the field. No. 3 seed Chris Caudillo of Cal Poly leads Bilyard’s heat.

Isaac Briggs, 3000m steeplechase

Briggs was 23rd in this event as a freshman at the West Prelims last year in 8:54.61, but enters this week as the No. 15 seed with a best of 8:38.10. He’ll need a top-three finish in his heat or a strong time to advance to Eugene, with No. 3 seed Logan Garnica and No. 4 seed Joash Ruto leading his heat.

Teko Cates, decathlon & high jump

Cates is already through to Eugene as the No. 22 seed in the decathlon final in his first season of college competition, but the redshirt freshman will head to Fayetteville to get some prep in this week. He’s the 40th-ranked high jumper in the field with a best jump of 2.12m, the same as 12 other men in the 48-man field.

Jonathan Frazier, 400m hurdles

The UW freshman record holder in the 400m hurdles, Frazier was limited to only two meets outdoors last season due to injury. Back healthy in 2026, the junior is seeded 29th with a time of 50.69. He’ll look to improve upon his 26th-place finish at the West Prelims in 2024.

Roman Hutchinson, triple jump

A junior from Federal Way, Hutchinson was 40th in the West last year and is seeded as such this season with a best jump of 15.51m. He was injured on his first attempt at Big Ten Outdoors last season before bouncing back for the NCAA meet, so a jump better than 40th is certainly in the cards for Hutchinson this year.

Evan Jenkins, 5000m & 10000m

One of three athletes to double in Fayetteville, Jenkins is seeded 26th in the 5000m and 14th in the 10000m. Without help in the 10000m, the 2025 Big Ten champion in the event will need to run well to break up groups of athletes from Washington State, Oklahoma State, and New Mexico to get into the top 12 and earn a ticket to Eugene.

Leland Lieberg, high jump

A senior from California, Lieberg is entering the first NCAA West Prelim meet of his career. He’s seeded 29th with a jump of 2.14m, so it’d take a heroic effort to crack the top 12. But not much separates his seed from No. 12, which belongs to Ndayiragije Shukurani of Colorado State. His best jump this season is 2.18m, only a few ticks over Lieberg’s.

Carson Olmstead, javelin

The sixth-place finisher at the NCAA Division III Championships while competing for Pacific Lutheran in 2024, Olmstead was 31st in the West Prelims during his first season at Washington last season. He is seeded 18th this season with a best throw of 69.20m.

Reuben Reina, 1500m

Reina returns to the track where he spent four years as an Arkansas athlete as Washington’s top seed in their signature event, looking for glory to cap off his college career. Seeded 9th at 3:37.32, Reina has Barco and freshman Josiah Tostenson in his heat to help him control the pace and advance through to Eugene, where he’ll look to earn another title for the Huskies in an event they have dominated in recent years.

Jimmy Rhoads, pole vault

The sixth-place finisher at the 2024 NCAA Outdoors, Rhoads redshirted last season before transferring from Penn to Washington, where he promptly broke the Husky school record at the indoor UW Preview. He’s Washington’s highest seed on the men’s side, sitting No. 2 with a seed clearance of 5.75m, behind Kansas senior Anthony Meacham (5.81m). Rhoads will likely spend his trip to Fayetteville watching other vaulters before clearing a small handful of bars to cement a top-12 spot. 

Alex Rhodes, 400m

The 2025 NCAA Division III national champion in the 400m indoors, Rhodes was unable to defend his title outdoors last season due to injury. He moved up from Puget Sound to Washington over the offseason and has immediately stepped in as one of the Huskies’ best athletes. He’s seeded third with a time of 44.94 this season, about eight tenths off the No. 1 seed, Jordan Pierre of Arkansas.

Trevontay Smith, triple jump

Smith has finished 22nd and 26th at the last two NCAA West Prelims, so his bid to Fayetteville this season makes it three trips in three years on Montlake. The junior from Yelm is seeded 30th with a best jump of 15.73m.

Josiah Tostenson, 1500m

A true freshman from Oregon who ran the third-fastest 1500m in American high school history last year, Tostenson rounds out both the list of Washington men heading to Fayetteville and the 1500m field itself. The freshman is the No. 48 and final seed in the event with a seed time of 3:41.47, giving the Huskies four qualifiers in the event they’ve excelled in on a national stage for the last four years. Tostenson, Barco, and Reina will all run in the third heat of the event.

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: UW men's track & field sends 15 athletes to NCAA West Prelims