One Extremely Busy Week of Track and Field Ahead


Katelyn Brown has been enjoying a solid season in the triple jump and should get the luxury of jumping at home this weekend. Photo by Matt Scoggins.

Last week's meet postponements meant, in part, that this week gets an extra load of meets. The week is pretty much wall-to-wall with rankings meets. Here's your quick overview of what's ahead:

Monday: The Lewis-Palmer FR/SO meet is slated for Monday (and that could be a bit chilly, even if they can get the track and field event areas cleared in time). Rye also got a fair dump of snow over the weekend, but I'm guessing they'll somehow find a way to make the Santa Fe League meet happen. It's already been postponed once. LATE UPDATE: Their method of making a go of it is to host at Pueblo County High School--and for a good chunk of the Santa Fe League, that's actually closer than Rye.

Tuesday: Jeffco 4A is hosting a relays meet, not a rankings meet. Of greater significance, though, are the University Twilight in Greeley and the NC Golden Spikes #3 in Fort Collins. Both meets will see a limited number of entries, but hold the potential to turn up some nice results just the same.

Wednesday: Here's where we start to see some serious offloading of this past weekend's postponed meets. Boulder County is typically a big, big meet and the Longmont venue can handle the masses. Whether this year's BoCo will be a big, big meet on a Wednesday remains to be seen. Also on Wednesday, Legend runs their Prom Qualifier on Wednesday--kind of a good deal for schools with prom coming up this weekend, and conditions should be pretty nice for a meet, too. Other Wednesday meets are of the JV/non-rankings variety, but they are out there in force.

Thursday: Thursday is heavy in rescheduled meets, to include the Berthoud Max Marr and the Thornton Maxine Ehrman. Brighton's Martinez CLASSic (grade levels compete against grade levels) and Wray's Valko van Tonder Invitational also compete for a share of Thursday's spotlight.

Friday: Southern and western Colorado make their debuts on the week's schedule via the Coal Ridge, Phil Wertman (Fruita Monument), and La Junta Invitationals. Plus, the Aztec Invitational in New Mexico figures to pull all or most of the San Juan Basin schools across the state line. Closer to the Front Range, you have your choice of the Stutler Bowl Invite, the Vista Ridge Classic, and day one of the Liberty Bell Invitational. 

Saturday: Aztec and Liberty Bell continue toward their respective finish lines. And, they join a massive slate of meets on Saturday. Among those are the Pueblo West Thunder-Storm, the Akron Invitational, the Dakota Ridge Invitational, the George Washington Invitational, the Holly Invitational, the Poudre Invitational, the Platte Valley Stampede, the Randall Hess, the Kiowa Klassic, the Rangely Invitational, and--finally--the Western State/Gunnison meet on the campus of Western State Colorado University.

Aside from a comparatively minor front pushing through on Monday, the weather looks to be cooperating this week. It's hard to imagine any team gets through the week without putting in an appearance in at least one meet. Obviously, some teams will be showing up in the results two or three times. Best conditions of the week appear to be setting up about Wednesday and Thursday, but you already know nothing is assured with springtime weather in Colorado. 

And, this will also be a heavy week for Colorado Track XC coverage. Meets scheduled for some level of on-site coverage this week include the La Junta Tiger Relays, the Boulder County Championships, Liberty Bell, the Phil Wertman, and the Pueblo West Thunder-Storm.