Ladies and gentlemen, this is it. After this weekend, there are four meets left in the season, and they all take place this week.
On Wednesday, the Colorado School of Mines comes back with its high school indoor series meet #2. Expect a crowd largely similar to the one you saw last week. The time to beat on Wednesday night is two hours and seven minutes. That's a tall order.
On Friday, the Air Force Holiday Open--the lone college meet at the Air Force Academy open to high school age entries--rolls out onto the floor of the Cadet Field House. You'll likely see several clubs bringing athletes to this one, but the club you'll have the hardest time missing should be Elevate Athletics (largely, but not exclusively, Vista Ridge athletes). The defense of the 4A Boys state title from this spring begins, at least in some sense, on Friday night.
Limiting factors at the Air Force Holiday Open are the odd race distances (300, 500, 1000 meters), plus the college size shot puts and hurdle height for the men. But, in spite of that, a substantial crowd of high schoolers always seems to show up.
And, on Saturday, cross country (at least of the variety that routinely attracts high school athletes) breathes its final hurrahs at opposite ends of the nation. The USATF Junior Olympic Nationals occupies Tallahassee, Florida. Foot Locker Nationals occupies, as it always does these days, Balboa Park in San Diego.
Colorado's interest in Foot Locker Nationals boils down to Harrison Scudamore. Scudamore finished 7th at FLMW to earn his visit to the beach (there's a beach very close to the Foot Locker Midwest course, too, but somehow San Diego beaches have greater appeal this time of year).
Truthfully, I'm not sure if any Colorado high schoolers are headed to Tallahassee this weekend, but rumor has it there's a rather hefty crowd of middle schoolers and younger pointed in that direction.
If you're puzzled about exactly who is headed to Tallahassee, that's just part of the game. Lots of people qualify to go, but not everyone who made the trip to El Paso and qualified will make the trip to Tallahassee. At this point, no lists of registered athletes have been released.
You can be justifiably stunned, however, if Erik Le Roux does not make the trip.
Due to family commitments, Colorado Track XC will not be on hand at any of this weeks meets, but results will be posted as soon as possible. If you're at any one of these meets and have a photo or two you'd like to send along, please do. It just might end up as a cover photo on Colorado Track XC.
2017 USATF Region X Cross Country Results