Trying to make certain even the smaller news items don't escape our attention...
Here are a few items of interest to fans of track and field/cross country across our state:
Saturday marks the first indoor college meet at Western State's Mountaineer Field House and presumably the final indoor college meet at CU's Balch Field House.
Former Skyline High School distance runner Sam Berg moved away from Colorado for his senior year of high school, but he will return in the fall as a Roadrunner.
If you want to test yourself against Utah's best distance talent, there is a great opportunity awaiting you in February. The Utah Distance Challenge will be held at the Olympic Ice Oval in Kearns, Utah, (suburban Salt Lake City) on Friday, February 13. The date alone might intrigue you, but the track will if the date doesn't. The track is a 441-meter Mondo affair wrapped around the Olympic speed skating oval for the Salt Lake City Olympic Games. And, this meet does get a very good representation of the top Utah talent. Or, you could see them the next weekend at Simplot. Or both.
Shining Mountain's Ginger Hutton ran a PR mile of 5:11.17 on Friday running in the Dartmouth Relays in New Hampshire. That probably qualifies as the farthest-flung Colorado high school performance of the weekend.
In addition to the High School Challenge races at USA XC in Boulder on February 7, you'll see several Colorado high school runners in the Junior Championships (6K for women, 8K for men). Already signed up are Joel Such, Tanner Norman, Jericho Ulibarri, David Rieder, Ben Butler, Katie Rainsberger, Caitlin Schmitt, Calyssa Trautner, Kayla Wiitala, Allysa Warling, and Luna Slater. You'll also recognize a few names of recent graduates in the Junior and Open races.
Speaking of registrations, they are already starting to pick up momentum for the Western State High School Indoor Open (Jan 31) and the Air Force High School Indoor Open (Feb 7). These two college-hosted events should be great competition and will be the lone in-state indoor meet opportunities this winter for runners without USATF membership.
February 7 will be the first winter date in the history of Colorado Track XC that we will have on-site coverage at two meets--the Air Force High School Indoor Open and the USA Cross Country Championships.