The girls championship race gets off in a near-perfect v-formation at last week's Rio Rancho Jamboree. Photo by Blake Wood.
The invitational season in New Mexico reaches its conclusion this weekend. And there are several meets vying for your attention.
Most notably, the cool air of Los Alamos--made cooler by late October kind of conditions--beckons a large group of 14 teams to the local golf course. Only nobody is bringing clubs. Oxygen, maybe, clubs no.
Coming to the showdown at high noon elevation are Albuquerque Academy, ATC, Bernalillo, Capital, Cuba, Espanola Valley, Hope Christian, Pojoaque, Santa Fe, SFIS, St. Pius, Cleveland, and Taos. That's a loaded meet, but Los Alamos always is. We'll try to keep an eye on where the other Santa Fe area schools are heading, but that much is not clear at this point.
Santa Rosa, Grants, and Ruidoso are each hosting more local invitationals in their corners of the state. Each figures to be a meet of moderate size, though Grants and Ruidoso could both get a little on the side of large, being the only meets for many miles around with plenty of schools looking for a meet home for the weekend.
In the northwest corner of the state is the Kirtland Central Invitational, more or less the unofficial championship of San Juan County. Look for some pride to be on the line for this one. Several state trophy contending kind of teams figure to be in attendance there.
Atrisco Heritage is hosting in the Albuquerque area. Apart from Academy, Hope, and Cleveland, this meet figures to get the schools wanting to run this weekend--and especially the larger schools--from the greater Albuquerque area. There simply aren't many other options. Atrisco Heritage may also pull in a few schools from not-too-distant surrounding areas.
This weekend represents a final tune-up for many athletes and teams as district qualifying doesn't figure to extend several of the state's top teams much. We'll be looking in particular for those names missing from last weekend's Rio Rancho Jamboree. Figure that most will be back in action this weekend.