Princeton's Weaver Stadium opens its gates for the 2026 Larry Ellis Invitational on Friday, the two-day meet beginning at 2 p.m. with the women's hammer throw and running through to a Saturday-night 5000m finale. The Ivy League host has positioned this year's edition as the regular-season finale for several mid-Atlantic programmes, with Pitt, Pennsylvania and the Naval Academy all listing the meet as their last open dual-card before NCAA East Regional declarations close on 12 May.
The meet's distance card is the headline draw. Princeton has built the men's and women's 5000m fields around scoring lines that closely match East Regional cut-offs, with several women's entries already inside the projected 16:00 first-round window. Penn senior Maeve Stiles, fresh from a 32:08.74 10,000m clearance at Stanford last weekend, leads the women's field, while the men's race lists Princeton's Sam Rodman alongside a Pitt-Navy chase pack expected to push the front of the race towards a sub-13:35 result.
Friday evening's middle-distance card is more compact but no less consequential for regional qualifying. The men's 1500m features Princeton sophomore Greg Foster and Penn captain Henry Van Geffen, both running for first-round insurance times after spring meets at the Penn and Texas Relays. The women's 800m draws four sub-2:04 athletes from across the Ivy and Patriot leagues; Navy's Caroline McCormick is the seeded favourite at 2:02.78 indoors. Field events open the meet on Friday, with the hammer, javelin and discus all running through the afternoon.
Saturday's relays card has been redrawn around the East Regional schedule, with the men's and women's 4x400m moved later in the running order to allow programmes a full 90-minute warm-down between the open 400m and the relay. Pitt has entered both relays in deeper-than-usual form after a strong showing at last weekend's Penn Relays, where the Panthers placed in the top eight of the College Men's 4x400m. Pennsylvania, hosting its own home regular-season finale a week ago, has chosen to enter only its 4x100m and sprint hurdles relays.
Live results are again being run by Leone Timing through results.leonetiming.com, with USTFCCCA-quality timing in place for both regional qualifying and seasonal best chases. Princeton's athletic department will provide a free live video stream of running events on Saturday from noon, with field events streamed where camera positions permit. The Tigers are chasing a third-consecutive Ivy League Triple Crown and will look to set up Heptagonal Championship form on home soil before travelling to Cornell for the league meet on 9-10 May.