The USATF Indoor Championships head to Ocean Breeze on Staten Island this weekend.

The top two finishers in each event who meet the qualifying criteria—either through their world rankings or by hitting the standard—earn their tickets to Toruń, Poland, where the World Indoor Championships will take place March 20–22.

When: Saturday, February 28 – Sunday, March 1

Where: Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex, Staten Island, N.Y.

How to watch: Saturday’s events will all be streamed on USATF.TV—you’ll need a $12.99/month subscription. Sunday’s marquee events will air live on NBC & Peacock (1–3 p.m. ET). Anything before the TV window will be on USATF.TV.

Live results: You’ll be able to find entries, a schedule and live results here.

Tickets: If you’re in the NYC area and are planning to buy tickets, go to USATF.org/tickets and use promo code CITIUS10 to save.

On the latest episode of the CITIUS MAG Podcast, we discussed all of the events taking place this weekend. You can listen to our full preview, which is available to stream, download and listen to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.

Below are some of the events that we are most excited for:

Women’s 3,000 Meters — Saturday, 1:44 p.m. ET

Elle St. Pierre is the clear, unanimous favorite here. The 2024 world champion is back on the track less than a year after giving birth to her second child, and she has looked every bit like the athlete who won gold in Nanjing. She’s already two-for-two in her two races: the 3000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in 8:26.54 and the mile at BU Valentine in 4:17.83. Elise Cranny—who will be racing in the U.S. for the first time since relocating to Manchester, England, to train with the M11 Track Club under coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows—is the next-fastest runner with an 8:37.06 season’s best from the Karlsruhe meet in Germany earlier this month.

Emily Mackay, St. Pierre’s former training partner and a semifinalist in the 1500m at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo, should also be also in the mix after winning the mile at the ASICS Sound Invite in a personal best of 4:22.43.

Mac Fleet: “Elle is kind of on a tear. When she won her gold medal indoors, she was just 11 months after giving birth to her son. We’re on that same timeline. I think it’s going to be a slow wind-up, and that benefits both MacKay and Cranny. They may not have the same strength as Elle but the closing speed is there.”

Kyle Merber: “Having Elise in this race keeps it honest because she’s got great speed.”

A dark horse contender could be Lexi Halladay-Lowry, who, if you strip away the NCAA athletes and international stars at the Millrose Games 3000m, was the top American professional in 8:38.78.

St. Pierre, Cranny and Mackay are all also entered in the 1500m

Men’s 3,000 Meters — Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET

No matter how this one plays out, at least one legitimate global medal contender will be left at home. Only two of the following stars will get to represent the United States in Poland: Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse, Nico Young, Ethan Strand, and Cooper Teare.

Hocker is the best distance runner in the world right now, as showcased by his recent 3:45.94 mile American record and a 2-mile win over a stacked field at the Millrose Games. The real battle ought to be for that second spot. Young appears to have the slightest of edges, having beaten Nuguse over this distance at the Sound Invite, 7:33.32 to 7:33.78.

Mac Fleet: “It’s not necessarily Nico vs. Cole so much as it’s Nico trying to race Yared for that second spot. Because trying to beat Cole could actually leave Nico off the team entirely. Do you risk going for the win and missing it?”

Kyle Merber: “You can’t let Cole control it. We’ve seen how he wins championships. He runs at exactly his pace and everyone lets him. If I’m Nico, I’m going to try to wind up from further out, be difficult to pass and use those turns. If you’re Nico, you want a lot of bodies there.”

Strand boldly tried to hang with Hocker and Josh Kerr at the Millrose Games and faded badly to 11th place in 8:15.93 over two miles. Fe followed that up with a more Strand-like performance, a third place finish in 7:35.29 at the Sound Invite behind Young and Nuguse.

The men’s 3000m/2-Mile at the U.S. Indoor Championships has been entertaining in the past when team tactics get involved. In 2014, a physical men’s 3000m between the Bowerman Track Club and Galen Rupp led to controversial DQs and tempers flaring between coaches. In 2019, Drew Hunter claimed the national title out of the “slow” heat after the top section ran six seconds slower than the time his Tinman Elite teammates paced him to earlier in the day.

Preet Majithia: “I do wonder whether someone like Drew Bosley might be given some sort of task of taking the race out the way Nico and Ethan want it.”

Kyle Merber: “This is Swoosh TC’s opportunity to start branding themselves as the most creative, reckless team on the market. I want to see a real team.”

One other name to keep an eye on: Matt Wilkinson. Kyle proposed a live over/under of 4.5 laps led by Wilkinson. Make of that what you will.

Women’s 800 Meters — Sunday (Heats Saturday, Final Sunday)

The women’s 800 is stacked, and might just wind up the most chaotic event of the weekend. Four heats precede the final, and the path to Sunday matters as much as what happens in the race itself. Only the winner of each heat is guaranteed through, which means sub-2:00 performances may not be enough.

Sage Hurta-Klecker is the favorite coming out of the Sound Invite, where she looked sharp and won in 1:58.78. She had a fantastic outdoor season that was highlighted by her fifth-place finish at the World Championships, and is a proven indoor racer.

But Meghan Hunter has also been impressive. She ran a controlled 1:59.74 at BU Valentine and won at the Dr. Sander meet at the Armory in a personal best of 1:59.70.

Kyle Merber: “I think Hunter has just sent it in races and done really well. She’s tough to get around when she can control it from the front. I think it’s her time to really get introduced to the international stage.”

Don’t forget about Heather MacLean—who is also entered in the 1500m and is coming off a 1:59.59 personal best in Boston last weekend—or Valery Tobias, who finished second at the U.S. Championships last year to make her first team, and could be a sneaky wild card pick again. Tobias quietly ran a 1:24.71 600m personal best in Albuquerque on the same weekend as the Millrose Games, and was third at the Sound Invite in a personal best of 1:59.30.

Mac Fleet: “Maybe I was just swayed by the last piece of content I consumed, but it was Tobias sprinting in one of her workouts. The Brooks team doesn’t race that often, but generally when they race, they’re fit.”

Men’s 800 Meters — Sunday, 1:49 p.m. ET

Americans have won the last two World Indoor titles at 800 meters with Bryce Hoppel claiming gold in 2024 and then Josh Hoey’s tear in 2025. Neither is competing this weekend. Neither is reigning U.S. outdoor champion Donovan Brazier.

This title is ripe for the taking by 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus, who has been one of the brightest stars of the entire indoor season. He’s three-for-three to start his pro career and set world U20 records in both the 600 (1:14.15) and 800 (1:44.03). His season’s best is 1.59 seconds faster than anyone else in the field. He’s a heavy, heavy favorite.

The question isn’t really whether Cooper wins. It’s what happens behind him.

Kyle Merber: “Cooper’s going to go out in 50-point, run 1:42, and then everyone else is going to have a tactical race and maybe some dude you’ve never heard of from a track club in New Jersey is going to make this team.”

Mac Fleet: “He’s just fitter than everyone else in the U.S. right now. He’ll go out, do his thing, and not think about anything going on behind him.”

Only Lutkenhaus and Isaiah Harris of the Brooks Beasts are currently qualified for the World Indoor Championships. The rest of the field would have to run sub-1:45.9 and finish in the top two to make the team.

Harris has qualified for World Indoor teams before and brings more experience to the starting line than anyone else. Isaiah Jewett could also be in the mix. But as Kyle said, that the second spot could just as likely go to someone unexpected like former NCAA champion Shane Cohen.

Women’s 1,500 Meters — Sunday, 2:23 p.m. ET

Take the top end of the 3000m field, add the reigning U.S. champion, and you get the most loaded women’s race of the weekend. Nikki Hiltz could be tabbed as the favorite since they are undefeated in 2026, winning the Wanamaker Mile and the Sound Invite 3000m decisively. You’d have to go back to summer 2022 for someone other than Hiltz to have won a U.S. 1500m title.

But now, factor in the return of St. Pierre.

Kyle Merber: “I would say nine people coming into this race think they can make this team… This is the race most likely to have an extremely salty post-race interview.”

Mac Fleet: “I think if Elle makes the 3000m team, she sends this race and makes it really, really hard early on. Nikki’s going to sit and Nikki’s shown this year that they can pull from further out.”

Sinclaire Johnson cannot be ignored. The outdoor mile American record holder made this team last year and ran an indoor 1500m personal best of 4:01.30 when she battled World Championship silver medalist Dorcus Ewoi to the finish at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix last month.

Gracie Morris, who claimed the U.S. 2K cross country title in December, has also been on an upswing, having run 4:02.12 1500m and 2:00.92 800m personal bests this indoor season.

Men’s 1,500 Meters — Sunday, 2:32 p.m. ET

Hocker will return for his second event of the weekend and is looking to replicate his golden double from the 2022 U.S. Indoor Championships in Spokane, Washington.

Kyle Merber: “I don’t think anyone in the world can beat Cole Hocker at anything right now.”

The field is deep, though. Nuguse is also entered, making this a potential rematch of their 3000m battle the day before. Wes Porter, Gary Martin’s teammate at Virginia, is a sleeper pick, along with 2x 1500m NCAA champion Nathan Green, who ran 3:50.31 at the Dempsey earlier this month.

A total of eight men in this race are already eligible to compete at World Indoors.

Preet Majithia: “There’s no incentive for anyone to make this race quick. And if they don’t make it quick, the guys who still need to qualify, like Nathan Green or Luke Houser, may not get the time they need.”

The meet record is 3:37.51, set by Hocker in 2024. The World Indoor standard is 3:36.00

Mac Fleet: “That is wildly shocking. That has to be the worst meet record.”

Kyle Merber: “That’s atrocious—and that’s coming from a Mac Fleet, a 3:38 guy.”

Men’s 60 Meters — Sunday, 2:52 p.m. ET

The meet closes with Olympic 100m champion Noah Lyles taking on NCAA 100m champion and training partner Jordan Anthony. Lyles has been leaning into the WWE theatrics this indoor season and trying to make a Pure Athletics belt a thing. He hoisted it after his 200m victory at the Tyson Invitational in Arkansas and has attempted to make wrestling-style promos ahead of USAs.

Mac Fleet: “I appreciate what he’s trying to do—genuinely, because I wish more athletes were doing more public bits like this. But it takes a village for everyone to be in on it. When the rest of the sport isn’t in on the bit, it doesn’t work.”

Kyle Merber: “In theory, people hating it is good for engagement. It’s almost like if it was good, it wouldn’t garner as much interest.”

As for the actual race, that should be good. Anthony ran 6.43 in Arkansas to tie Lyles’ personal best. The difference is that Anthony ran his at sea level, whereas Lyles ran his in Albuquerque at altitude, where sprinters actually tend to run faster. As we noted in our podcast following the 6.43, don’t be surprised when Anthony pops off as one of America’s best in the 100m come this outdoor season.

Lyles has yet to run a 60m this season. But he has posted season’s bests of 20.56 for 200m and 32.15 for 300m to demonstrate current sharpness, and ran 6.52 last year. Lyles previously said that he has no plans of competing at World Indoors, since he is getting married in April.

We’re not quite sure how the belt trading works if Trayvon Bromell steals the show and takes the win. Bromell is looking to return to the World Indoor Championships for the first time since his gold medal in 2016.