This Week In Track & Field


It's time to start kicking some sand in photographers' faces.

It's been a long while without any meets.

Well, actually, the pole vaulters had a cozy little meet of their own at Steinhauer Field House on Saturday. Results weren't especially spectacular coming out of that meet, but they did get an extra opportunity to ramp up their game before the National Pole Vault Summit in a little less than two weeks.

But, real, full-bodied indoor track and field resumes here in Colorado this Sunday at the Cadet Field House with the Nite Moves All Comers Invitational. 

High school age events begin at 12:30 PM, except for the shot put and pole vault, which begin at 8:30 AM. So, if the throwers and vaulters look a little sleep deprived, now you know why. For many, it will feel a lot like the routine of getting up early for school again, though most would probably rather warm up for a throw or a vault at 8 AM than prove trig identities or balance chemical equations (and we won't even talk about diagramming sentences or trying to divine hidden meanings in the sentences of Dostoyevsky here). 

Events for Sunday's meet include--in addition to the aforementioned events--the 60, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 60H, LJ, TJ, and HJ. And, for those ready (or not) for a little stick work, there's the mile relay. And, yes, it is a true mile relay on the Air Force Academy track.

Expect that this one's a bit of a smaller meet as indoor meets go. There exist plenty of reasons why athletes may not feel 100% ready to go quite yet, and next week's meet--the Martin Luther King, Jr., Mile High Classic--is probably the second biggest extravaganza on the Colorado indoor season. So, if people are making choices between this week and next, next week is almost certainly going to take the win.

On the other hand, the meet won't end up too terribly small because there's a whole bunch of people who've been itching to get back to competition for an entire month now. One thing you will definitely see on Sunday is the release of no small amount of pent up energy.

It's also possible some Colorado high school types show up in College Station, Texas, this weekend for the Texas A&M High School Indoor Classic, but no certain word of any Colorado entries has trickled back to me yet. In any case, we'll be watching those results closely to see if any from Colorado does how up.