There's always something special about the Salida Invitational, whether it's the handmade trophies, the hills, or the black power pistol start--or all of the above. Photo by Alan Versaw.
It pains me just a little to have a featured meet of the week Colorado Track XC isn't able to cover, but such are the limitations of not being able to be in all places.
This week's featured meet runs at very near the geographic center of the state in Salida. A new course has been set up on the Vandaveer Ranch property. This is at least the fifth different course configuration in the meet's history, but Salida coach Kenny Wilcox is a bit persistent about finding (and, hopefully, keeping) the ideal setting for Salida's home meet.
And, that's part of the reason this meet has turned as competitive as it has.
Back in the day, it was a pretty small affair and strictly limited to 2A and 3A schools. That's not the case any longer.
Salida will be hosting at least 13 other schools, including schools traveling from considerable distances--Regis Jesuit, Lutheran, Middle Park, Heritage Christian Academy, Rocky Ford, and Evergreen. Throw in schools like Gunnison, Sargent, and, of course, Salida, and you can see very quickly that the competition should be both thick and furious.
The Regis Jesuit visit reunites two coaches who were college teammates at Wartburg College--Kenny Wilcox and Andrew Drysdale. We won't say how long ago that was except to say that it would have been a lot longer ago if I had been involved. We do know for a fact that this meet brings together several of the most interesting characters in the cross country coaching profession here in Colorado.
The meet also hosts a substantial middle school division that will feature some of the top middle school talent in the state, pretty much entirely from within a two-hour drive of Salida.
Nobody who comes to a cross country race really wants to stand still in one place, but if you picked your place carefully and did that at this meet, you could see over 90% of the race from one spot. A quick glimpse at the course map (see attachments on the Salida Invitational meet page), will give you an idea or two where that spot might be.
Nobody is expecting the course to run exceptionally fast. Very early into the race the course starts switchbacking up to the crest of a mesa. And, if you've forgotten you'll soon be reminded that Salida is situated at about 7000 feet of elevation. So, they make it exceptionally fun instead.
Maybe the best fun of all at this meet is that the teams participating will be chowing down together at Los Girasoles, a local Mexican-themed eatery, following the meet.
And how many sports would ever see something like that happening?
