For those of you who have been waiting patiently, and especially for those of you who have been waiting impatiently, this weekend is for you. Much of New Mexico is now officially into track and field action. The weather is warming up and basketball is losing its grip on attention of the athletically-minded population of large portions of New Mexico as more and more teams have dropped out of contention.
Things get rolling as early as tomorrow in Albuquerque (actually, the Menaul High School track, if I'm not mistaken) with the Sandia Prep Invitational. It looks like it will be a smallish kind of meet with possible attendees including Sandia Prep, Pojoaque Valley, Menaul, and Cobre. If you're good with New Mexico geography, you can probably readily identify the team making the biggest trip to take part in this one. And maybe you don't even have to be especially good with New Mexico geography to make that call.
Farmington has already moved their Early Bird Invitational to Friday in an attempt to dodge some weather. That strategy may or may not work. There's a good possibility for weather and Farmington intersecting on Friday as well, but at least the day starts out a little warmer than Saturday is supposed to. If you live in northwest New Mexico or southwest Colorado, you'll recognize the names on the list of teams coming. Espanola Valley appears to be taking the prize for the team coming the farthest to take part in this one.
The rest of this weekend's in-state meets are scheduled for Saturday. Or, it's at least the case that I've not become aware of any other changes of date. It is true, however, that Saturday's weather forecast looks better for the Albuquerque area than it does for Farmington.
Saturday's Chile Quad matches up Los Alamos, Albuquerque Academy, St. Pius X, and Rio Rancho at Albuquerque Academy. This is always a fun one for seeing where some of the traditional heavy hitters in New Mexico track and field are starting out their seasons. It can become a little daunting looking at the results of this meet, and especially the distance events from this meet.
Grants and Los Lunas are both hosting on Saturday as well. Los Lunas figures to draw Belen, Moriarty, and Valencia from points reasonably close by, plus a good selection of southern programs. Grants, on the other hand, figures to draw mostly from points west, essentially all of the way to Arizona.
It gets a little tougher figuring who's gone where once teams cross over into Texas, but figure there's some yellow school bus border-crossing activity happening on Friday and Saturday, to include both the eastern and southern borders of New Mexico.
The usual drill applies. Please feel welcome to send results and photos my way. I'll go digging for what I don't get by conventional means, but everything happens a little faster on the site when I don't have to dig or when someone is good enough to at least point out where to dig. Keep checking back for new sets of results--I will make sure to post them as soon as possible after they are received.