Thomas Salas, a freshman standout for Onate, will be leading his team south into Texas on Saturday. Contributed photo.
There won't be any meets the size of the UNM Lobo Invitational in the Land of Enchantment this weekend, but there will still be plenty of exciting cross country action to be found.
This week, we'll start our look at what's ahead in the capital city of Santa Fe. There, ATC will be hosting their Everybody Invitational. Varsity races start at 9, JV races start at 10:15, and middle school races start at 11:30. And that's everybody!
Not far from Santa Fe, Jemez Valley will be cleaning up on any small schools somehow missed by the Everybody Invitational in nearby Santa Fe.
Continuing in a generally northwestern direction, you end up across the border in the cool pines of the San Juan National Forest for the Southwest Challenge. Figure on a few Farmington area schools beating the heat just outside of Bayfield. It is kind of a devil's bargain, though, in that the "Challenge" part of the meet name isn't a misnomer. This course will tax you a little.
Take a sharp bend to the south from Bayfield that will eventually leave you near Gallup. And that is where the Miyamura Patriots will be hosting their annual event. No doubt, a large chunk of western New Mexico will be joining you there. If it's near Gallup, you get to deal with a little sand in your spikes!
From there,it's a long drive that eventually takes you across the southern border of New Mexico. The Las Cruces teams continue their back-and-forth with the El Paso schools. This time it's El Paso Coronado hosting on the south side of the state line. Worry not, the Texans will be back.
Driving west and then north from El Paso takes you to the UFO capital of the world--Roswell, New Mexico. No UFOs are anticipated for the Pecos Valley Invitational, but if any race leaders suddenly disappear from the course, you know you have probable cause. Catch all the action at Enchanted Hills Park.
After visiting Roswell, it's back to Albuquerque and the center of the state. The Albuquerque small schools will mostly end up at ATC or Jemez Valley, but the big schools figure to split between the West Mesa and Albuquerque Invitationals. Unless I got my wires crossed somewhere, Albuquerque runs at the Hard Rock Pavilion, while West Mesa opts for the Westlands Open Space.
And, I almost overlooked one...
If you are trying to track Albuquerque Academy, they will be hopping into vans and making the long drive to Littleton, Colorado. There they will be shoehorning themselves into the narrowest space that ever passed for a starting box and racing against the best that Colorado has to offer in the DI race of the Liberty Bell Invitational.
