This Week in Track and Field


The track and field set will be back cavorting around Steinhauer Field House on Thursday.

This week, honestly, looks a lot like last week. At least it does on the surface, though once you probe beneath the surface a little, some differences are there to be found.

The big picture is that, yes, once again there will be a meet at Steinhauer Field House on Thursday and a meet at the Cadet Field House on Sunday. And, for those for whom Albuquerque is closer, there will be another meet at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

All this means that, for those who want to, there is a very real possibility of competing twice this weekend. Honestly, I was a little surprised at the number of people who jumped on that possibility last weekend. 

Will the success of last week's Mines meet mean even more athletes show up this week? Or was last week the novelty, and this week begins the process of the Mines meets doing the hard work of establishing an enduring foothold in the indoor schedule? My hunch is that a little of both will apply to Thursday's meet.

For those who wish to do only one meet per week, this week's USATF-Colorado meet on Sunday is probably a little bit of a stronger draw than last week's Tony Wells Memorial. When you start calling a meet a state championship, that automatically gets a little more attention.

And, this week's meets are subtly different from last week's. At Mines, they will be contesting the triple jump they didn't contest last week. Based on how things moved along last week, the triple jump competition probably means the whole meet won't finish in 2:25, or even close to that, this time around. Between multiple flights and both genders, the long jump took most of that 2:25 to get finished. And, there is only one pit to use at Steinhauer Field House...

Also different this time around, the distance types who show up will be running a 3000 rather than a mile. That figures to add a few minutes to the track portion of the meet duration as well.

There are also differences in the USATF-Colorado offerings this weekend versus last. 

The distance event this weekend will be the mile instead of the 1500 at Tony Wells. There will be a mile relay this weekend that there wasn't last weekend. With a strong probability of more people, including the adult entries this weekend, you should plan for longer spacing between events.

Events in Albuquerque look to be much the same as last weekend. The long pole in the Albuquerque tent is evidently not one related to events, but one of publication of results. 

Colorado Track XC on-site coverage will be pointed at the high school portion of the USATF-Colorado Indoor Championships this weekend. We'll definitely be paying attention to what happens at the Mines HS Indoor #2 and report on that, but neither I nor anyone else will be there for on-site coverage.