Olivia Hayden trades in her black-and-orange for Penguin colors (black-and-white, I believe) on Saturday. Photo by Paul Jaeger.
The USATF National Junior Olympic meet in San Antonio on Saturday will formally and officially close out the 2013 cross country action for Colorado's high schoolers and middle schoolers. Normally, we think of Foot Locker as closing out the season, but Colorado had no athletes advance to Foot Locker Nationals this year. The only Colorado athletes in action will be in San Antonio.
The Planned Pethood Posse team (sounds like a team coached by a veterinarian, doesn't it?) will be out in force. You'll recognize names like Jairo Tiscareno, Kayla Young, and Jeffrey Lazo, but there is a lot more to the Posse than these two.
Another well-represented Colorado club will the the Penguins XC and Track Club. The club is based out of Alamosa, and many of its representatives do, indeed, hail from Alamosa and points nearby, but the club also seems to have a satellite office in Lakewood. That would help to account for Olivia Hayden running under Penguin colors.
Landsharks Running Club comes in at a serious way at the 13-14 age group level. The Landsharks should be fielding very strong teams for both genders, including a few individuals who have already begun their high school careers. And, some of the biggest concerns for the Landsharks club may come from just a few miles north in the form of NORCO Elite Racing and the Zoom Track Club. If you follow the middle school cross country scene, you will recognize a lot of the names from both teams.
Here's my promise to you... I'll get the results up from this meet as soon as we can and get results posted to athlete pages for all athletes in the 13-14 and older age group and up. If I miss one--and that's entirely possible when combing through the results of a meet like this--please let me know. If you're younger than the 13-14 age group but do already have a page on the site, please let me know of your results and I'll try to get those posted as well.
Results should be posted by sometime Saturday evening. I will definitely consider using a photo submission or two for editorial purposes if I get any.