Moab warms up a little sooner than most of the state of Utah, so it's only fitting that the outdoor season begins with the Red Rocks Invitational.
The usual suspects, including Green River, Carbon, and close to the full set of San Juan County schools, were in attendance. But the meet drew well from areas afar as well. Most notably, the meet pulled in Wasatch High School all the way from Heber City for a little early season action.
And it's easy to see why Wasatch was anxious to get things started. If this meet is any indication, Wasatch is going to be a certified track and field power this spring. And that status would apply on both the boys' and the girls' side of the ledger.
Wasatch sprinkled event winners all over the meet, including Cale Strong (200, 110 Hurdles - 14.82, and 300 Hurdles - 39.01), Kaitlyn Walker (100 Hurdles, 300 Hurdles), Nick Rubio (100), Talem Franco (800), Nate Lee (Long Jump - 22-1, High Jump), Rebecca Mawhinny (Javelin), plus both 4x400s and both 1600 sprint medleys. And, where they didn't win events, they typically stacked up points throughout the places.
Emery freshman Ashlynn Allred put herself on a few small school radar screens by sweeping the 100 and 200 in nice times of 12.98 and 27.14. Carbon's Regan Powell made a clean sweep of the distance events before, in all likelihood, logging a nice little nap on the ride back to Price. Also of note was a javelin toss of 167-6 by Green River's Spencer Marshall. Doubtless we'll be hearing from a few of these names on the third weekend of May in Provo.
Utah's invitational action gets underway a little more more vigorously this upcoming weekend with meets in Kearns and Kanab.