For almost all of us, cross country season is done. It's time to start looking ahead toward track season.
Here are a few items that I think will be of interest to the track and field community:
Indoor Track and Field
The usual slate of USATF indoor meets will run out of Balch Field House in Boulder. But things are changing with respect to the other indoor opportunities for high school athletes in the state. The Colorado School of Mines High School Indoor meet moves to a two-day format on January 12 and 13. Saturday, January 12, will be track events; Sunday, January 13, will be field events at Steinhauer Field House.
The Martin Luther King, Jr., Classic actually moves to the MLK holiday weekend at the Cadet Field House of the Air Force Academy this year. It will be held on the Sunday of that weekend.
That move was made possible by the change of date for the Air Force High School Indoor Open to the Sunday of President's Day weekend (February 17).
Interestingly, President's Day weekend seems to have become the weekend of choice for the big regional indoor meets. Simplot goes from February 14 - 16 this year. And, the Great Southwest Indoor meet runs on February 16. Ambitious travelers could actually participate in two of the three big meets in the Rocky Mountain region this year.
A complete list of high school indoor meets (and a growing list of college indoor meets) may be found on the 2013 Indoor Schedule.
At this point, it appears that the on-site coverage schedule for the indoor season includes the Saturday of the Colorado School of Mines meet, the MLK meet, and the Air Force HS Indoor Open.
Outdoor Track and Field
The CHSAA-sanctioned season for outdoor track and field has official practice beginning on February 25 this year. The first weekend for meets falls on March 8/9.
The season wraps up with the all-classification state meet at Jeffco Stadium on May 16 - 18.
If you would like to have your rankings meet get some early exposure on the 2013 Outdoor Schedule, simply send me your meet information (please use the e-mail address in the lower left corner of this page), and I'll get that information posted for you.
Those meets already on the schedule seem to be adhering closely to the same weekends they occupied last season.
Colorado Track XC will have writers covering meets all around the state this spring, but it looks like my coverage will include: a meet to be determined on opening weekend, the Banana Belt Classic (3/16), the Pueblo Centennial Invitational (3/23), a meet to be determined on 3/30, a meet or meets to be determined on 4/5 and 4/6, the Mullen Runners Roost on 4/13, the R2-J Invite on 4/19, a meet to be determined on 4/26, the El Paso County Small Schools Championship on 4/27, the Pueblo Twilight on 5/3, possibly another meet on 5/4, the Tri-Peaks League meet on 5/11, and the State meet.
Speaking of the Tri-Peaks League meet, I'm hoping that one will travel to Salida. I'm anxious to see their new track and field facility there that will substantially increase the rankings meet oppportunities for schools in Chaffee and surrounding counties. Salida and Buena Vista have done a lot of track and field travel the last several years and this facility promises to offer some relief for that situation.
I'm not aware of any other new synthetic-surface tracks in the state, but please let me know if your school has one.
Major movements from last year's track and field alignments have Rifle and Berthoud moving back to 4A. Mead moves with them (which, combined with Berthoud's move, leaves a big hole in 3A boys sprints), as does Weld Central. Sterling, on the other hand, moves down to 3A and probably brings some added pole vault competition to the classification with them. That extra help comes in useful to fill a hole made when Yuma moved down to 2A a couple of years ago. Simla and Springfield move to 2A, along with a few other schools, but these two departures figure to have the biggest impact on 1A.