There's Trouble Coming to Town!

It's Liberty Bell Weekend, and that means Kyle Pittman (left), Pat Zacharias and Neil Longenbaugh (right) are crossing the state line with conquest on their minds. Photos contributed by Kathy Hipwood and Adam Kedge.

In all of the invitational season in Colorado, there is no weekend like Liberty Bell weekend. Adrenaline is coursing through every runner on the starting line. Bragging rights are on the line. Anticipation will not be this high again until the state meet.

Adding to the adventure each year is the presence of several top-notch teams and competitors from out of state. Several teams from Wyoming, Nebraska, and New Mexico will be making the trip for this year's meet. St. Michael's, Los Alamos, and Albuquerque Academy are coming from the Land of Enchantment. Campbell County, Rock Springs, Laramie, and Cheyenne Central are the high-profile entries from the Cowboy state.

While acknowledging the level of competition as a drawing card for his Albuquerque Academy Chargers, coach Adam Kedge also allowed that, "We only travel a squad of eight so those seats in the van are hard earned. Our kids will work long and hard during July and August just to get a chance.  Missing two days of school, we come up on Thursday, motivates a 16 year-old boy to run the extra mile when it is mid-July and 90 degrees out." So, for the team in red, the 8-hour trip to Littleton is very much about long-term motivation.

And, it's not as if their presence is unappreciated. The top entries from surrounding states add a great deal of legitimacy and luster to the meet.

Key match-ups occur all across the board in this year's edition of the Liberty Bell Invitational. The Division I race will feature Kedge's Chargers against schools like Chaparral, Regis Jesuit, Cherokee Trail, Arapahoe, and Cherry Creek--the best competition Colorado has to offer. Los Alamos, though probably a bit down team-wise this season, brings up Kyle Pittman to compete for the individual title. And do not too quickly dismiss the Hilltoppers as a team.

The Boulder and Fort Collins girls will collide again in the Division I race. Chaparral's girls will be making the case that they should not be overlooked in the 5A sweepstakes. If Albuquerque Academy brings their girls team up, each of the aforementioned teams will get a good read on where they stand with respect to what is likely the top team in New Mexico. Unfortunately, Highlands Ranch will be running in Division II, thus averting a collision that would otherwise prove extremely interesting.

Division II collisions of interest include Highlands Ranch vs. Pine Creek vs. Pomona vs. Dakota Ridge vs. Loveland vs. Mullen vs. Monarch vs. Rampart vs. Cheyenne Mountain vs. ... Some of these matchups are more intriguing among the girls, and some among the boys, but there promises to be a lot of telling outcomes in both races.

Laramie (WY) swaggers into the Division III race to take on Evergreen, Moffat County, Niwot, and Woodland Park.

And, in the Division IV race, observers of Colorado 3A cross country will take special interest in the Colorado Academy vs. Faith Christian match-up. An injury to Kara Slavoski has marred the potential match-up with Sam Berggren, but Estes Park vs. Vista Ridge should be a compelling team match-up.

Please note: This year, I will enter Liberty Bell results as three-mile race results for archiving to the MileSplit performance database as opposed to entering them into the 5K category. Despite various rumors that the course is short, the fact that I am doing this should not be construed as an allegation that the course is three miles. Tracing the route of the course on Google Earth, in fact, suggests that the course is longer than three miles. For the purposes of rankings, however, treating Liberty Bell times as 5K times consistently produces inequities.

Last year, I removed Liberty Bell marks for three days prior to the regional meets so that people could do rankings on a more level playing field leading up to the regional races, but that resulted in some database problems that were time-consuming to fix. So, this year, I will simply put the results into the three-mile bucket and leave it at that. While not a perfect solution, I believe it to be the solution with the fewest unintended negative consequences.

A comparison of state vs. St. Vrain vs. Liberty Bell times in 2008 for all competitors who finished in the top 10 in any of the eight state races last October: