Lake City offers scenic and remote solitude as part of its cross country meet experience, and that stands in stark contrast to what you'll find at other meets this weekend. Photo by Paul Jaeger.
Most weeks, I just start through the chronological list of meets. This time around, I'm starting with the three cornerstone meets of the week.
Over in Grand Junction, all eyes turn toward the Liberty Bell of the Western Slope--the Anna Banana Wildcat Memorial Invitational. It's like Liberty Bell in a lot of ways--plenty of hard surface, very flat, a lot of tree shade to run under, and it consistently turns out PR marks for a very large percentage of its participants.
There doesn't figure to be anything different about any of that this year. And, largely because it runs so predictably fast, you can count on a very large turnout of teams. As a testimony to the drawing power of this meet, Grandview is coming over to join the fun this year.
Michele Bisbee will be on hand covering this one for Colorado Track XC.
On the Front Range, the big draw meet of the week is the multi-division Dave Sanders Invitational at Clement Park. It only seems like half the Front Range ends up there, but it is a very large, and very competitive meet. And, like Anna Banana, it has a substantial hard surface component which helps it to run fairly fast, thought the grassy sections and a few ups and downs help to temper that speed at this one a little.
Jeff Bliven's keen eye will be trained on this meet.
And, in Colorado Springs, the Coronado Cougar Classic has become the premiere event of the region in recent years. Monument Valley Park bursts at the seems for this meet, and it is always very competitive. The trick here, though, is that this meet runs on Thursday, before the weekend really gets going. Like Dave Sanders, it's a multi-division meet, but there is no hard surface here, unless you count trail paced down over decades upon decades as hard surface.
The last couple of years, Mountain Vista has come down and had their way with this meet, but Vista Nation may be resting up a little this year after back-to-back big weeks at Woodbridge and St. Vrain. Arapahoe is another Denver metro team that makes a habit of coming down for this one, and the Warriors might have more than usual to show this year.
Tim Hilt will be on hand doing coverage of this monster of a meet.
All other meets of the week are smaller--typically much smaller.
In Greeley, Frontier Academy engages in a bit of the unusual by hosting their second meet of the season. It looks to be drawing a solid 3A crowd. Though it's not one of the biggest meets of the weekend, it seems important enough to send Ben Hershelman to do coverage. It ranks as the small-school meet of the week.
Before the weekend even approaches, some San Juan Basin teams will be rolling buses to the John Thornton Invitational in Blanding, Utah. The St. Vrain Valley schools will be settling district bragging rights at Sunset Golf Course. Brighton hosts the John Martinez Mercury Classic. Buena Vista hosts their annual affair along the Arkansas River. And, the Littleton Runners Roost splashes down at deKoevend Park, though as a smaller meet (by recreation district edict) than it has been in years past.
When Friday arrives, meets start popping up all over the place. Glenwood Springs, Center, Kennedy, Lake City, Loveland, and Platte Canyon each host on Friday. Ranking those courses from easiest to most difficult leaves us with something like: Kennedy, Glenwood, Center, Lake City, Loveland, and Platte Canyon. I've never been there, but I'm told Platte Canyon has few rivals in the state--on any weekend. Lake City arm wrestles with Platte Canyon for most scenic.
There's still plenty of action coming your way on Saturday. Custer County returns to the St. Andrew's Golf Course in Westcliffe. Fountain-Fort Carson runs a tour de campus. Pagosa Springs host on a tamed-down course over previous years. And, Boulder brings everyone who will come to Viele Lake Park under the shadow of Fairview High School.
We're still not done, though. At least two, and maybe three major out-of-state meets will see Colorado representation. Palmer Ridge is headed to Bob Firman to try to wreak some havoc on the Northwest region. At least a couple schools, plus Paul Roberts, are headed to Rim Rock in Kansas. And, there just might be a team or two headed to the Griak in Minnesota, though I've not received any definite word of that. Griak, though, has a reputation for very deep grass and may have faded a little in popularity with the Colorado set.
So, if you were disappointed in how easy it was to scan all the results from last weekend, you should be much happier this weekend. Keep coming back, as the results will keep arriving through most of the weekend.
