Welcome Back, Track
After a six month hiatus, track is finally kicking back up. With the third installment of the Big River High School Indoor Series kicking off in the Hearnes Center in Columbia, as well as the Arkansas HS Invitational down in Fayetteville, track is back.
For those who have been paying attention, we have seen signs that track is making its return. Sophia Rivera, Brentwood's four-time state champ, threw a then US#1 48-2.75 in the Shot Put back in December. Flash forward to this past weekend and the first (unofficial) official meet was held on the campus of Southeast Missouri State. Jabrille Lewis, a senior from Rockwood Summit, ran 7.55 for the 55H, good enough for a top 15 time in the United States.
Big River Running Meet #1
In its third year, the partnership between Big River Running Company and University of Missouri has given the athletes in Missouri a chance to compete regularly during the winter months. I hate to use the “back in my day" card, but “back in my day [four years ago]" we only had one indoor meet in the state that drew a good crowd. Since then, the series was put in place and has grown since its inception. Notably, the series gained regional interest with many athletes coming from surrounding states to compete in Columbia.
With no entries published, it's a big hard to do a meet preview. One would expect this meet to be a little bit down from last year as many of the athletes that compete in the Big River Series also make their way to Fayetteville.
Arkansas High School Invitational
We could see a number of top performances from Show Me State athletes in Arkansas. Some big names come most notably from the boys distance races. Stephen Mugeche, leads the way, coming off a state title in cross. The sub 9:00 3200m runner is the top seed in both the mile and the 3000. The 800m includes Dustan Davidson of SLUH. Davidson has already started his track campaign, running 1:57.86 at a Wake Forest meet to place second behind Bershawn Jackson, 400m hurdle Olympian.
Also making the drive will be Jasmine Barge of McCluer North. The 100mH and 300mH champ will be competing in the 200m as well as the 60m hurdles. This will be a good test for Barge as she will get to see some of the top runners from a number of states including Texas.
It's a bit hard to find much as there are a good amount of entries and its sorted by team name, but here are the seeds for the meet.
Best of luck to all athletes competing at both of the meets