Sizing Up New Mexico's Large School Boys


Jerrick Maldonado sent a message with a going-away win in the Great Southwest Indoor 800.

Introduction

Some of you reading this know who I am and others of you don't. So, to level the playing field a little, I'll let it out of the bag that I live in Colorado but have maintained a long-standing interest in New Mexico cross country and track and field.

I come down to New Mexico at least a couple times a year for the Great Southwest meets. My high school team will be at the Joe Vigil Invitational in Alamosa in September and I figure to see a few folks from New Mexico there, but my opportunities to come down during the season--whether that season be cross country or track--are very limited. So, what I do, I mostly have to do from afar.

A few years ago, I ran the MileSplit New Mexico site. But, running that on top of running Colorado got to be a little much, so I handed off the New Mexico site. 

Now, a few years later, MileSplit National has asked me to come back and write a couple articles a week during the track season (maybe cross country season, too, but we're waiting to see how things go here first) to add some fresh content to the New Mexico site. All of these articles, all season long, will be free content.

These first couple of weeks will be preseason kind of articles, taking a look at the teams most likely to be running up the score at the UNM track come May.

For those wondering if this isn't just a little early to get started on that, I'll drop a reminder that the first meet on the New Mexico approved track and field calendar is next weekend down in the West Texas town of El Paso. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to get this all started!

The next two pages will be all about 5A and 4A boys. I'll come back later this week with 5A and 4A girls. Next week, we'll take a closer look at the smaller schools. Beyond that, well, you'll just have to drop by and see what I'm writing about any given week. It's a safe bet these articles are not going to drop on weekends, but there doesn't figure to be a lot of pattern to when they drop during the week. Keep checking.

On the weekends, check for meet results. There is no more comprehensive place to find New Mexico meet results. If you don't know where to send meet results, send them to me and I'll make sure they get posted. Send text or spreadsheet format results if at all possible, please.

Before you go to the next pages, however, I have one more request to make. In a word, the request is photos. I need photos. You can boost the chances of your team being featured on the cover (or maybe even the inside) of one of these articles by sending along quality images to me at versawa@msn.com. It helps if the photos are horizontally oriented. I definitely prefer action shots to posed shots. The best shots are of athletes in their school team uniforms (though I'll need to violate that rule a few times as we get started here). 

Oh, and if I'm misspelling a name (or two or six), please let me know. I'd far rather be corrected than wrong about that sort of thing.

Not every article will be as long as this one, but we need to start building some base here. 

That's all for now. Click on Next and we'll start discussing 5A Boys.