Arizona to Host Willie Williams Classic this Weekend

TUCSON, Ariz. – Arizona Track and Field will host the Willie Williams Classic this Friday and Saturday for their outdoor home opener at Drachman Stadium.
 
“Following a long, but very successful trip to the Bahamas, it will be great to be home,” said Head Coach Fred Harvey. “The Willie Williams Classic has grown to become the largest university, college, community college, high school, and open meet in the state of Arizona. It is also special, because Coach Willie Williams was the first Black Division I Head Coach in any sport in the NCAA, and we get to honor him annually.”
 
The meet gets started on Friday with the collegiate events beginning at 1:00 p.m. MST with the men’s hammer throw. The Dave Murray Distance Carnival will then take place Friday night for running events, with a multitude of distance races starting at 5:00 p.m. MST. The first collegiate field event on Saturday will be the men’s pole vault, which gets started at 10:00 a.m. MST. Additionally, running events will also begin at 10:00 a.m. MST on Saturday. The meet will also hold two adaptive wheelchair races on Saturday: the 100m and the 800m. Results for all the competitions can be found here.
 
The team returns to Tucson after their last outing in Freeport, Bahamas for the Island Relays. Jordan Geist highlighted the meet for the Wildcats, breaking the school record and winning the hammer throw with a personal best launch of 73.94m (242-7). Geist was named both the USTFCCCA Men’s National Athlete of the Week and the Pac-12 Men’s Field Athlete of the Week for his performance, which also won the event.

Additionally, the Wildcats had five other event winners: Ava David (hammer throw), Alexa Porpaczy and Talie Bonds (high jump tie), Reinaldo Rodrigues (long jump), and Youssef Koudssi (discus). They also had a flurry of top-three finishes across the two-day event. Overall, the men finished runner-up at the competition with a total score of 140 and the women placed third with a total score of 152.

 

The Willie Williams Classic is the first of four home meets that the Wildcats will host during the outdoor season. The meet’s namesake, Willie Williams, was inducted into the Arizona Athletics Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year.

 

A meet recap will be posted to ArizonaWildcats.com detailing the competition results. Live updates will also…