First Impressions: League and Regional Meets

It was fun and games last week as Adam Sinda offered up a little impromptu celebration at the end of the Jeffco 5A 800, but the intensity will be a few notches higher when the athletes next step onto the track. Photo by Clif Jurgens.

 

It's always a little tough to read the results of league/regional week.

 

Was Windsor's domination of the girls Northern Conference meet a foreshadowing of what we can expect at state? And how about what we saw from the Coronado boys, toppling 5A juggernaut Fountain-Fort Carson at the Colorado Springs Metro 5A meet?

 

Will the Wray and Baca County boys duel it out down to the wire at state as they did in the 2A Region 5 meet?

 

Can Discovery Canyon's boys reprise the magic that won the 3A Region 1 championship for them?

 

Did the Heritage girls 4x400 strike fear in the heart of Littleton, or will Littleton come back this week with renewed resolve and punish the presumption of all pretenders at state?

 

These, and many more, questions will be answered in the upcoming week.

 

At the 4A and 5A levels, due to the urgency of making the cut in the rankings, many athletes were maxed out this last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Sometimes in the face of inhospitable weather conditions. For a long list of athletes, opportunities were down to one and it was literally a matter of nail-down-a-performance-or-turn-your-uniform-in-on-Monday.

 

At the 2A and 3A levels, a slightly different kind of urgency impelled many athletes to spend all remaining stores of energy to secure that third-place slot at regionals to advance to state.

 

Many made it. Many more did not.

 

And a few, at every level, were able to coast through the weekend. It is the final fact that makes the results from league and regional weekend so difficult to read.

 

One of the most fascinating reads we get out of every league/regional meet weekend is seeing which teams have suddenly shifted emphasis to relays. And even that is often a difficult read to make.

 

At the 4A and 5A levels, teams are under no compulsion to stick with the relay teams that secured top-18 slots in the rankings. Though it is cynical to say so, some schools will unload their relays and bow out of the competition in the preliminary rounds without so much as a whimper.

 

At the 2A and 3A levels, however, running a loaded relay at regionals is a kind of crossing of the Rubicon. You gave up a regional event for everyone on the relay team and, if you entered an individual in four events at the regional meet, the state events for that individual are now set in stone.

 

That said, here are a few of the interesting relay entries bursting onto the scene over the last few days:

 

1. Heritage girls 4x400. Heritage has run some good 4x4s up to this point, but the 3:51+ this weekend clearly moves them to a new level.

 

2. Olathe boys 4x100 and 4x200. It wasn't difficult to see this one coming, but Olathe clearly dropped the sprint relay hammer at their regional meet in Grand Junction. What is most interesting about the Pirate sprint relays is the potential they hold to confound the plans of some other 3A contenders, such as Lyons, The Classical Academy, Cedaredge, and Faith Christian. Sprint relays should figure heavily in the 3A boys team race. Rye could also play a similar spoiler role here. Rye's relays appear, for now, to be a step or two behind Olathe's, but still plenty high enough to create some consternation for other teams. The 3A boys 4x1 and 4x2 are such that nobody can count on getting to finals by coasting through prelims.

 

3.  Cherry Creek and Smoky Hill boys 4x800s. The rivalry between Cherry Creek and Smoky Hill may not be all that it once was, but neither of these teams wants to lose to the other. League meet weekend leaves the very clear impression that state is likely to come down to a contest between these two fine teams.

 

4. Valley and The Classical Academy girls 4x200. After an entire season of frustratingly unresponsive 3A girls 4x200 efforts, these two teams broke through into the 1:45s at regionals. With senior Lindsey Hubbard running three relays at regionals, it's clear that Valley has marked relays as the patch of turf they mean to defend at the state meet. And, they are strong enough to defend it well. It's a tossup whether the SMR or the 4x200 is the better relay for Valley, but the SMR is a perennial point of emphasis for the Vikings and nobody is ever taken off guard by their strength in that event.

 

5. Fountain-Fort Carson boys 4x1 and 4x2. There's ample reason to believe that FFC didn't put everything on the line for the CS Metro 5A meet, but they did serve notice that they will come into state as favorites in the 4x1 and 4x2. Cherokee Trail has the best shot at the Trojans in both events, but it will be an uphill battle. 41.80 and 1:26.19 speaks for itself.

 

6. Fort Collins girls 4x800. Even if the Lambkins took their time in putting this one on the track, you had to see this one coming. Fort Collins has been laying down nice individual 800s all season long. They take over the state lead in the 4x8 with their performance at the Front Range Conference meet and the rest of the teams figure to be in the rear-view mirror.

 

7. Windsor girls SMR. Windsor has been hurting people (from other schools) in relays all spring long. Although the 800 SMR is a bit of a junk event for many programs, it fits the talents of the Wizards girls very nicely. The 1:47.48 they posted under less than ideal conditions at the Northern Conference meet is for real.

 

8. Evergreen girls 4x800. Undoubtedly, this is another one that many saw coming. Evergreen has a nice stable of female distance runners but may struggle to claim high places in any of the three individual distance events at state (Maura O'Brien appears to have the best shot in the 3200). Four strong distance girls, however, do make for a very nice 4x800.

 

9. Dolores girls 4x800. That Paonia won the 2A Region 4 girls 4x800 comes as no great surprise. The Eagles have been loading the 4x8 for years. That Dolores came in a strong second and easily sits second in the rankings going into state wasn't quite so predictable. Dolores has pretty clearly made a shift over to relays heading into state and, on paper, that shift seems to suit their talent very well. And it suits their talent nowhere better than in the 4x8. Dolores should be a state title contender and recent trends suggest that relays are the route to the top in 2A girls.

 

More state preview material to come....