The Great Southwest Track and Field Classic has established a national reputation for matching the nations best boys and girls sprinters, but sport fans who come to the University of New Mexico Track a day early to this year´s edition for the multi-events (Thursday-Friday) will be treated to several truly world class performers and possibly a national record. Brittany Boormann of Missouri will be defending her 2007 title against the versatile Ryann Krias of Pennsylvania, who has already set national records for high school sophomores (5,142 points) and juniors (5,377). One of these gifted young ladies will prevail, and the matchup of two established youthful talents is rare.
Not so rare in the boys field, however, where last year´s champion and bronze-medalist return to write another chapter to their long history of competition when both were in age-group events right here in Albuquerque. Curtis Beach and Daniel Gooris benefited from their long, friendly rivalry to be ranked among the best young decathletes in the world. Beach, still only a junior, has won no less than a dozen state track and field titles already, competed in many select national events, and last August was only 100 points from winning a world junior decathalon. He won last year with 7,185 points and is poised to obliterate the meet record.
Gooris (6,886) is not only a gritty decathlete but is the second-highest polevaulter in New Mexico history. Whether in the decathalon or in Saturday´s open pole vault, it seems he could any day join the revered Martin Sategna as the only New Mexico highschoolers to scale seventeen feet. Both Beach and Gooris will be continuing their magnificient track careers on grand stages, and the Great Southwest may be the last opportunity local sportfans will have to see them compete against one another -- at least as high schoolers.
Once Saturday´s competetion opens, the sprints will be a showcase for the absolute best speedsters in America. Victoria Jordan (Fort Worth) leads the always-dazzling Texas sprint corps and should approach the meet record. The Arizona girls team defers to no one and has the depth to make the 4 X 100 Relay between these two storied programs the best relay of the whole meet.
Spectators should be sure to come early, because not only is the Girls 4 X 100 one of the first events, but the Pole Vault begins in the late afternoon and has a bevy of young men who have scaled well over sixteen feet, and the Girls Pole Vault features the top two athletes in the whole country.
The Great Southwest Track and Field Classic
