One Very Full Week of Track and Field Ahead


It's time again for distance battles under the lights. The Pueblo Twilight runs on Friday. Photo by Alan Versaw.


Brace yourselves. It's wall-to-wall track and field all week long.

This week was already going to be intense enough with it being the final week where schools were allowed more than one meet (next week is strictly one meet per school, period, no exceptions). It got worse--or is it better?--when half of last weekend postponed into this week.

So, today held the Weld County JV #2, the Coronado Cougar Classic, the High Country Pole Vault Meet, and the Colorado Meet of Champions--all postponed from earlier dates. 

Tomorrow picks up with the Western Slope 4A JV Championships, the Highland Twilight, the Holy Family Tiger Tornado, the Liberty Freshman/Sophomore, the Santa Fe League Meet, the San Juan Basin League Meet, and the YW Invitational. A few of those represent postponements from earlier in the season, but I don't have to tell you that's a whopping lot of meets for a Tuesday.

Colorado Track XC will be sending Ben Hershelman to the Holy Family Tiger Tornado. Well, actually, Jefferson Academy is sending Ben to the Tiger Tornado and Colorado Track XC is giving him something extra to do with his evening once he gets home.

There is no respite on Wednesday. In the middle of the week, you will find the Jeffco Qualifier #3, the Continental League FR/SO, the EMAC Meet, the Front Range League Meet, and the PPAC Meet. Several of these are days one of multi-day meets, but it's a busy Wednesday just the same.

Brock Laue will be on-hand doing coverage for the Front Range League meet. 

Thursday ushers in the Centennial League FR/SO Championships, the Elizabeth JV Invitational, and the Frontier League meet in Bennett. Think of that as the calm before the storm.

It gets busy, real busy, on Friday with the Canon City Blossom, the Pueblo Twilight, the DPS Viking, the Lower Platte League Meet, the Tri-Valley/Northern/Mile High, the Union Pacific League Meet, and the Western Slope Multi League meet. A couple of those meets spill over into Saturday as well.

Colorado Track XC will be on hand at the Pueblo Twilight. We're aiming at both photo and video coverage there.

Saturday is as busy as any Saturday. The 1A Invitational rolls out onto that little patch of prairie known as Limon. Elsewhere, league meets are represented by the Patriot and Colorado 7 (plus whatever league meets didn't finish earlier in the week. Invitationals include Doherty, Cherry Creek/Grandview, Highlands Ranch, and Terry Alley (Pagosa Springs). 

Colorado Track XC will be setting up shop at Highlands Ranch on Saturday.

So, yes, it is a very busy week. Every coach in the state is thinking about the task of balancing opportunity and fatigue. For kids not yet in the top 18, though, it's pretty much a given coaches will be a bit more willing to err on the side of fatigue. Next week it's down to one last opportunity.

Keep checking in all week. We'll feed results your direction and update the rankings as fast as can. 

Speaking of updating rankings, I was doing some of that in the horizontal jumps today (periodic tidying up there is necessary on account of next-best wind-legal marks that often slip through the system until I do that tidying up). I found a couple of top-18 marks that were in my results but not in the MaxPreps results. I'm not necessarily saying my results are right, but it's probably worth checking that your horizontal jumpers' marks are all included in the MaxPreps rankings. Remember, those are the ones we go by for state meet selection.

Thanks!