We expect to see a vastly different La Cueva team this weekend than last, where Tom Hiett and Nathan Buttry hid out in the C team race. Photo by Alan Versaw.
The title of this article requires no explanation. When you talk about the "big one" of the New Mexico invitational season, no other meet comes to mind. It is, indisputably, the Rio Rancho Jamboree.
This year's edition of the meet takes on a little extra interest in that the course may have been reconfigured slightly to accommodate a solar array. Any number of people are anxious to see how that impacts the feel of the course.
But still more people are anxious to see how the teams stack up at this one. How will Zuni hold up against most of the state's 4A and 5A powers? Have the Los Alamos girls measurably closed the gap on Eldorado? Oñate comes up from the south--what kind of firepower to they bring with them? Are the East Mountain girls deep enough to knock off a few quality teams from larger schools? Will the Cleveland boys continue their steady rise back to the upper echelons? And the Volcano Vista girls--where, exactly, on the curve of improvement are they? Which St. Michael's team will we see? With Albuquerque Academy out of the field, what batch of cream will rise to the top of the boys race? And so on and so on...
The questions raised are not solely about teams. Who wins the boys race now that it's a given Kyle Carrozza isn't in the field? Do we see any of several La Cueva runners who dominated the C team races at the Metro Championships last weekend back in their regular varsity slots? Will we see more sub-19 girls or more sub-16 boys? How will the southern individuals--ones with names like Thalmann, Casillas, Gonzalez, Aguilera, Marquez, and Miranda--hold up against the top individuals from the northern half of the state? And, what of Arena Lewis? Will she mix it up with the best of the state?
There is only one time and place to find the answers. The Rio Rancho Jamboree is the convergence where all these questions, and more, find their answers.
To be sure, the Jamboree isn't the only meet in the state--just the biggest.
Hobbs runs their invitational this afternoon, undoubtedly filling their field with a few teams from the oil fields of Texas.
Sandia hosts Albuquerque Academy and probably a few others at Albuquerque Academy. That course is getting a lot of midseason kind of work. Fortunately, it's a course that can endure a lot of beating, though it won't get as stern of a test this weekend as last.
And, well, that's it! Only two meets in the entire state of New Mexico have the temerity to go up against the Jamboree. That alone speaks volumes of the significance of the Jamboree.