After 18 consecutive years at the University of Washington’s Dempsey Indoor Facility, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s Indoor Track and Field Championship relocates across the state to “The Podium” in Spokane. “When first meeting Ashley Blake, Vice President of Spokane Sports, I was struck by her contagious excitement for sports and Spokane,” said first-year MPSF Executive Director Foti Mellis. “Ninety minutes later, she and I had explored multiple partnership scenarios involving the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and Spokane Sports.” Today marks the first of those partnerships becoming a reality as the MPSF signs a three-year agreement to host its indoor track and field championship at “The Podium.”
The multi-purpose downtown venue is scheduled to be completed later this calendar year, with a seating capacity of 4,237, with its marquee feature being a six-lane, 200m hydraulically banked track. The entire facility will be 135,000 square feet, including concessions, vendors, management, media, and medical training stations. The two-day 2022 MPSF Championship Meet will be contested February 18-19. Prior to the 18-year run in Seattle, the championship was held in Reno, Nevada (1993-1999) and Flagstaff, Arizona (2000-2002).
“MPSF Championship events play a major role for teams competing in our eleven sponsored sports,” Mellis added. “Our commitment to creating an exceptional student-athlete experience has resulted in an opportunity for our talented track and field athletes to compete at The Podium – a true world-class facility. The MPSF is grateful for this partnership and the shared desire to promote indoor track and field. We also look forward to engaging with the greater Spokane community. They are gracious, hospitable hosts, and the textbook definition of sports enthusiasts.”
The 2022 MPSF Indoor Track and Field Championship is scheduled to be comprised of 15 teams, 10 for women and five for men, across 10 universities from members of the Big West and West Coast Conferences. Live coverage of the two-day meet will be provided by FloSports (
https://flosports.link/3gKDpWD). Fans can download the FloSports App on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV 4, and Amazon Fire TV to catch all the action.
The MPSF has produced nine of the last 14 Indoor Track and Field NCAA Team Champions on the women’s side, and 11 all-time. The MPSF men own six NCAA Team Titles, all in the last 13 years. This past Spring, the MPSF reached a unique non-power five conference milestone of 100 total NCAA Division-I Team Championships, dating back to its initial season in 1992-93.
Further MPSF Indoor Track and Field information, including the championship’s schedule of events, will be forthcoming on the conference website
www.mpsports.org and on the sport’s twitter page @MPSFTrack_Field. Additional information regarding “The Podium” can be found online at
www.thepodiumusa.com. Sports news related to the Spokane Region and “The Podium” can also be found online at
https://www.spokanesports.org/.