Out of March and into April

There are not a few track coaches and athletes around the state ready to bid adieu to March. It hasn't exactly been the best of track and field weather. But, at the very least, the misery has been fairly evenly distributed--at least up on down the Front Range where most of the states storied track and field programs make their home.

This weekend looks to produce a bumper crop of rankings meets--by far the largest haul of rankings meets of the season. And, just getting to the weekend involves a few more rankings meets as well. Provided the end-of-March weather holds off enough to get those meets in, that is.

I have not yet seen results, but I'm going to assume the weather was good enough today to get the City of Ft. Collins vs. City of Littleton meet in. And, that one should turn out some nice marks, though probably not a lot of the distance variety with barometric hovering about as low as it ever goes in Colorado.

Tomorrow, Delta hosts a JV meet that shouldn't be under any sort of meteorological jeopardy.

But, the Jeffco Qualifier #1 will be under some duress. If the chance of rain materializes, this one will get cold in a hurry. But, with all the cancelled meets of late, there may be more than the usual pressure to keep this one going. It is, however, a relatively small meet--at last glance there were nine times in line for this one.

If any Colorado high school athletes are pointed toward Austin for the Texas Relays, that meet begins on Wednesday. Historically, it seems to be the norm that one or two high-end Colorado tracksters end up at this storied meet.

Moving to Thursday, the only show in the state--at least as far as rankings are concerned--is the Brighton Mercury Invitational. The forecast here looks a whole lot like the forecast for the Jeffco Qualifier on Wednesday. It's not going to be a very warm meet if they decide to make a go of it. This time, however, the stakes are a little higher, with something like 20 schools on deck for this meet. Brighton has a history of being slow on the trigger finger to put meets out of their weather misery. My very strong hunch is that this meet will happen (no pressure there, Karen!).

And, if the Brighton meet does happen, Colorado Track XC has on-site coverage lined up for the meet. 

Things pick up in a big way on Friday--April Fool's Day. 

It still isn't expected to be warm on Friday, but at least no serious chance of precipitation makes its way into the forecast. Friday should be an excellent day to test meet officials' (and coaches'!) knowledge of the uniform rule with respect to spandex that goes below the knee (both in the case of with shorts over and without shorts over). There could also be a few games committee decisions made about gloves and headwear on Friday. 

The Holy War pits Regis Jesuit, Mullen, and Valor Christian in a tri meet at Valor's track. It's a shame this one didn't make the cut as a rankings meet. You can bet it will in future years. At the very least, this is the best-named meet Colorado has seen in time out of memory.

Also on Friday, Sand Creek hosts their invitational at neighboring Vista Ridge High School. It's been a long time since this meet has seen anything north of 50F, so the teams coming to this meet are pretty much already resigned to a three dog night at the track. Colorado Track XC plans to be on-site for this one, daring frostbite along with the rest of you.

The City of Littleton is set for an intramural struggle, of sorts, after settling things with Fort Collins on Tuesday. The truth is, however, there are more schools with a Littleton address than most of you would guess.

Broomfield is likely still chafing over the cancellation of their rescheduled meet on Monday. They will likely be forging on their Friday 8-team Invite no matter what the conditions. 

And, Palmer hosts the first day of their two-day invitational extravaganza--the Freshman/Sophomore division of their weekend goes on Friday.

If you wanted early April warmth, hopefully you signed up and qualified for the Stanford Invitational a good, long time ago (and you will find a nice selection of Cherokee Trail entries on the performance lists).

A full set of meets--and a considerably warmer weather forecast--greets Saturday. Northern Colorado meets include Altitude Running in Fort Collins, University Bulldog in Greeley, Mountain Range right beside I-25 at what used to be the far north end of Denver, the Arvada City Championships at the neutral site of Jeffco Stadium, and Holyoke in, well, Holyoke. 5 bonus points if you know where Holyoke is, and 10 more bonus points if you've ever been there. Geographic awareness is always a good thing.

Colorado Track XC coverage is cued up, tentatively, for Mountain Range. If you didn't know, this figures to be one of the biggest meets of the season. Look forward to that unless you're in line for the restrooms. Since we're trying to find work for Ben Hershelman after a very slow March, we also have coverage lined up for Arvada City. 

Cedaredge and Mickey Dunn hold down the fort on the Western Slope. The usual large school/small school distinction more or less applies to these two meets. Colorado Track XC will have on-site coverage at Mickey Dunn in Grand Junction.

South of the Palmer Divide and east of the Continental Divide, you can take your pick from the Sangre de Cristo Invitational a couple miles north of Mosca, the Pueblo County Invitational at their new digs a few miles east of Pueblo, the annual gathering of small schools far and wide at the Elbert Invitational, the Palmer Terror Invitational at Garry Berry Stadium, and the Lamar Invitational.

Chances are far greater that the day will begin with chipping ice off the track at Elbert than at Lamar. I'm not sure if that helps to make a meet decision for anyone, but there's probably someone out there who finds that kind of information either useful or entertaining.

If you get chilled to the bone taking in the Sangre de Cristo Invitational, you can always take a post-meet dip at the nearby alligator farm. The water is always nice and warm there. And invigorating. 

Colorado Track XC coverage will be on-site at the Palmer Terror.

Each of these meets figures to draw well, and each has their own dedicated following. This is a weekend that most teams tend to stay close to home, and the selection of available meets makes that a most reasonable option. Also figure that this is the first serious weekend of split squad competition. Many of the state's top track and field programs regularly split squads on weekends to find events for all of their varsity competitors. That tradition resumes in earnest this weekend.