On Friday, Lewis & Clark College’s leafy backdrop in Portland, Oregon, will once again play host to the Stumptown Twilight. The meet serves as a final opportunity for athletes looking to earn qualifying marks for next week’s USA Outdoor Championships. 

For those already with the standard (or those from other countries) Friday’s competition is a good tune-up for the rest of the summer season. With no rain in the forecast (as of this writing), athletes will have much drier conditions than they had for last weekend’s Portland Track Festival. 

The meet begins at 6:30 PM PT (full schedule here) and features 800m, 1500m, steeplechase, and 5000m races. Before we take a look at a few events to watch, check out the full entries and the full list of which American athletes have the standard for the USA Championships.

Watch the 2018 Stumptown Twilight Live On FloTrack

Men’s 5000m: 9 PM PT

Hassan Mead of the Oregon Track Club has made the last three national teams and will be looking for another top-three finish next week in Des Moines (he’s currently entered in the 5000m for the U.S. Championships). Last weekend in the Stockholm Diamond League, Mead did not finish the 5000m. That was his only attempt at the distance in 2018. This season, he has run a 3:38 1500m and has put up an 8:24.09 in the tactical two-mile at the Pre Classic.

Nobody in the Stumptown field can match Mead’s PR, so this race should be an opportunity to time trial to a quick mark ahead of the U.S. Championships. Eric Jenkins took a similar approach to the 5000m at the Portland Track Festival—sitting behind the rabbits as long as they remained in the race before running the final few laps solo. It worked for Jenkins. He posted a 13:21, almost eight seconds ahead of the next-fastest finisher. Mead should be able to follow that pattern and have a boost of confidence before he heads to USAs.

Women’s 800m: 6:45 PM PT

Former NCAA champion Raevyn Rogers is the class of the field. Rogers was fourth at the U.S. Championships last year and, in the winter, her first season as a professional, she qualified for the World Indoor Championships. As expected, she’s run well outdoors. She was seventh at the Prefontaine Classic, but ran 1:59.36, just off her lifetime best of 1:59.10. As per usual, the women’s 800m in the United States is deep, so Rogers will more than likely need to run 1:59 in Des Moines to finish in the top three. 

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Pushing her to a quick time in Portland will be Georgia Griffith and Hannah Fields. Griffith, who is Australian, ran 2:01.40 to win the fast section at the Portland Track Festival. Fields finished second in the third heat, running 2:03.64.  

Women’s 1500m: 7:55 PM PT

Griffith (last year’s winner of this race) and Fields are listed in this event as well. If they decide to double back they will add some big names to an already deep field. 

Jenna Westaway of Canada ran 2:02.06 to finish second behind Griffith last week in the 800m. She has a lifetime best of 2:01.22 that she ran this winter at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix. 

NCAA fans will have their eyes on Lilli Burdon. The junior from New Zealand just finished her junior season at Oregon, where she placed third in the extremely competitive 5000m at the NCAA Championships. 

Last year at this meet, Burdon ran her PR in the event—a 4:11.19 that still stands as a national junior record for New Zealand. With her breakthroughs in the longer distances and the pressure of the NCAA season off, can Burdon go under 4:10 on Friday night? 

Men’s 800m: 7 PM PT

This race provides an opportunity to see one of the most unheralded 800m runners in the world. Peter Bol of Australia sits sixth on the world list with a season (and lifetime) best of 1:44.86. The 24-year-old ran that mark in Stockholm last week against a top field. 

But Bol has little international experience. He’s never advanced beyond the first round in a World Championships or Olympics and, prior to this year’s race in Stockholm, he’d never run under 1:45. In fact, Bol has only broken 1:46 four times in his career.

Joining him on the start is another runner in the midst of a rapid rise. Brandon Lasater, 25, ran 1:45.85 in May. That was his fastest time in the distance by over a second. His 3:48 at the Portland Track Festival wasn’t as encouraging, but on Friday he will be back in his best distance and will have Bol to chase down.