The runner-up at the Colorado Middle School State Cross Country Championships in October, Lauren Gregory (center) found herself competing against high school and college competition at the UW Indoor Open in Seattle this past weekend. Contributed photo.
Almost lost in the fact that Colorado's indoor participants were gathered at either the state indoor championships in Boulder or the Great Southwest Indoor meet in Albuquerque is the fact that two younger runners in Colorado were participating in the UW Indoor Open in Seatte. And they acquitted themselves very nicely.
Lauren Gregory finished second in the women's 3000 meters at that meet with a time of 9:58.53. Gregory still has a couple of years to go before she's even in high school.
On the men's side, William Mayhew (younger brother of Nolan Mayhew who will be running as a freshman for Vanguard this spring) ran in the mile, finishing in 4:40.66.
Evidently, the oversized indoor oval and sea level elevation were friendly to both.
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On a completely different note, this will serve as a reminder to coaches and meet directors to get online registration requests submitted at least two weeks prior to their rankings meets this spring. For those with opening weekend meets, that time is drawing near.
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The Simplot Games are coming up later this week. Literally, thousands of athletes will be converging on Pocatello, Idaho, for the weekend of indoor track and field action. The javelin is one event to be contested this weekend and that has this fan of track and field scratching his head. How do you do a javelin competition indoors (safely)? I guess we're about to find out. Perhaps I've made one assumption too many.
One thing I'm not assuming is anything about the quality of participants from Colorado headed to simplot. A longer preview article is in the works, but for now it will suffice to say that Colorado is sending a massive chunk of talent to this meet. You can check out the heat sheets for yourself.
Look for reports on the action from Simplot all weekend long.