September 24 - 26 Start Lists (7 so far...)

Nicholas Vai and his Coronado teammates host a whole lot of folks in Monument Valley Park on Thursday. Photo by Alan Versaw.

Coronado Cougar Classic

This year's edition of the CCC will be missing some familiar Denver metro teams like Mountain Vista and Arapahoe, but will still boast a very strong collection of southern Colorado teams. Can Katie Rainsberger run faster than her 18:03.5 from last year? Don't bet against it. Can Coronado sweep the team titles at this meet? It will be a tall order. How well will small school programs like Salida, Peyton and Lamar fare? It's not absolutely out of the question that two small schools win the meet titles here! In any case, you can show up at Monument Valley Park on Thursday afternoon and find it all out first hand.

Commander Cup

Kennedy High School brings in a mostly local set of schools to Bear Valley Park. For the uninitiated, Bear Valley Park is flat, shady, and mostly hard surface. We should see some very fast times here. In short, this course is a bit of a setup for Kayla Young to hit one out of the park. Some of the intriguing teams arriving include Denver South, Denver East, Elizabeth, Castle View, and Standley Lake. It should make for an interesting afternoon.

Dave Sanders

Two major divisions, plus level divisions. 46 teams. Easily the biggest meet of the weekend, and Clement Park is big enough to handle it all. If you're attending, plan or bringing binoculars for when the competitors are on the far side of the lake, or you could just plan on sharing a conversation with whomever you find standing next to you. You'll have a few minutes.

There are plenty of heavy-hitting teams headed this way. Fort Collins pays a visit to a venue where Mike Callor had plenty of success as a Dakota Ridge coach. Arapahoe, Arvada West, Battle Mountain, Cherokee Trail, Cherry Creek, Evergreen, Mountain Vista (it looks to be only the B team, but that should still be enough to strike some fear), Rampart and many, many more.

Nobody gets out of this one untested.

Wolverine Invitational

Up in Greeley, Frontier Academy hosts their second meet of the year--this one a little closer to home than the first. It would appear, though, that FA is resting their varsity boys (perhaps in view of a big trip to California last weekend), so the boys team battle could come down between schools like Heritage Christian Academy, Jefferson Academy, Liberty Common, Platte Valley, and University. Resurrection and Heritage Christian could make for an interesting battle on the girls side of things.

Anna Banana Wildcat Memorial

As always, this one should be a good show--and a quick one, too. Individual showdowns appear to highlight the day for this one. Caroline Robbins, Soleil Gaylord, Greta Van Calcar, Ruthie Boyd, and McKenna Ramsay are but a few of the top girls you can expect to see. Ian Meek, Jack Plantz, Tyler Scholl, and the brothers Fedel are among the top boys.

Mile-and-a-Half High

It looks like a very nice pairing between junior Jerald Taylor and sophomore Cody Danley for top honors in the boys race. Custer County figures on trying to hold off Rocky Ford for the girls crown. Joining the two southern Colorado powers are the homeschool Denver Eagles, Rye, Swallows Charter, and Florence.

I very nearly signed TCA up for this one, but didn't want to deal with the travel the morning after the homecoming football game (and day of the dance). I'm keeping an eye on this meet as a B-team experience for our crew in coming years.

Pat Patten

This one is shaping up as a very interesting showdown of strong local teams, though the Peak to Peak squad that's headed out to Stanford will be missed. Boulder, Monarch, Fairview, Broomfield, and Niwot won't be missed, however. And, Fossil Ridge brings in a stern test from Larimer Country. Conventional wisdom says this isn't a showpiece kind of course for a burner like Isaac Green, but we'll see if he can win in spite of the mutterings of conventional wisdom. Ben Butler figures to be a stern test, assuming that Butler runs as is indicated in the start lists.