It goes without saying that, with only two weeks of qualifying left before State, any rankings meet now is an important meet. It's time to start swinging for the fences, to borrow a metaphor from a different spring sport.
Today's roster of rankings meets is down to two: the YW Invitational and the High Altitude Invitational.
If you're wondering about the nomenclature of the YW meet, I believe YW stands for Yuma and Washington, the names of the counties from which most of the meet's attendance is drawn. It's a small-school meet for northeastern Colorado programs. And they love the pole vault in Yuma (not so much so in Wray).
The High Altitude Invitational's name speaks for itself. Alamosa sits at 7554 feet of hypoxia. Essentially, the entire San Luis Valley will be there. Oxygen deprivation is more or less a permanent state of affairs for these schools.
Things remain relatively calm on Wednesday. The Highland Invitational moved to Wednesday in view of an unfavorable weather forecast for Tuesday. This one, too, is a small-school kind of meet, but a bigger version of a small-school meet than the YW Invitational. Expect a solid number of robust marks comes out of this meet.
Also on Wednesday, we'll have the Continental League FR/SO meet, and, yes, there are some very capable freshmen and sophomores in this league. If meet history is any indicator, prepare to be blown away by some of the marks emerging out of this meet.
Wednesday hosts day one of the Front Range League meet and the Jeffco Qualifier #3. JQ #3 wraps up on Thursday, while the FRL meet gives athletes a day off before completing on Friday. And, as always, the FRL figures to be a very competitive kind of affair. Adding to the build-up to the Front Range League meet are all of last weekend's cancellations and a weather-shortened LoboCat meet. There's some pent-up energy coming into a meet that was already a big-time meet to begin with.
Thursday welcomes the rescheduled Cardinal Classic, day one of the EMAC Championships, the Santa Fe League meet, the Centennial League FR/SO meet, and the Frontier League - Bennett meet.
Obviously, Elizabeth has teams coming to their meet, but several of those teams will either be loading athletes heavily for the weekend now that they're double and triple booked for the end of the week, or they could be holding some top talent out of the meet. We'll have to wait and see what happens there. And, it could be a little of both.
The Santa Fe League goes to neutral territory in La Junta to settle their differences. One bonus to going to La Junta is an enhanced variety of post-meet dining options over, say, Swink, Rye, or Walsenburg. By the way, many of those same teams will actually be in Walsenburg on Friday for an opportunity to compare La Junta and Walsenburg dining options.
Yet another bonus of having the league meet in La Junta is that athletes can solar-fry themselves almost instantly by laying down in either football end zone of the La Junta infield.
The Frontier League has a couple of league meets per year. I'm not sure of the rationale behind that, but the one this week visits Bennett.
Everthing we said about the Continental League FR/SO meet goes for the Centennial League FR/SO meet as well. I've a hunch the Continental has a slight edge on the Centennial this year. Maybe we can do a meet merge after the fact and see how that plays out between the two leagues.
It gets even busier on Friday. Friday ushers in day one of the three different league (or multi-league) meets, with the Western Slope 2A/3A/4A, the Southwestern League, and the Mile High/Tri-Valley/Northern league meets all kicking off (to borrow a metaphor from a fall sport) on Friday.
Also on Friday you have the Pueblo Twilight with it's associated distance carnival under the lights of Dutch Clark Stadium, the Blossom Invite in Canon City, the Cinco de Mayo in Walsenburg, the Denver North Invitational, plus the Lower Platte, Union Pacific, and 3A Metro League meets.
The officials working those meets don't catch much of a break on Saturday. Many will be back in action at Highlands Ranch (Echo Park Stadium), the big 1A Invitational in Limon, the Cherry Creek Invitational, the Colorado 7 meet in Englewood, the Terry Alley in Pagosa Springs, the Patriot League meet in Eaton, the Doherty Spartan Invitational, and Jeff Donnel's gift to the the small schools of the state--the Small School Last Chance Invitational at Jeffco Stadium.
That, folks, is a LOT of track and field action on Friday and Saturday. Meets should move fairly quickly, though, as none of the meets are especially large. Lots of meet options will do that for you.
Colorado Track XC coverage this week includes Highland on Wednesday, Pueblo Twilight on Friday, and the Highlands Ranch Memorial on Saturday. Race video should accompany Pueblo Twilight and Highlands Ranch.
For more detail on any of these meets, please consult the table on the next page: