DAVID SEELEY SPORTS EDITOR The Gore Invitational cross country meet will take place Thursday morning at the Steve Owens Sports Complex.
The meet will begin at 9:45 a.m. with the elementary girls race, followed by the elementary boys race, the junior high girls race, the junior high boys race, the high school girls race and high school boys race — with each race starting 15 minutes after the previous race.
The high school boys race will be a two-mile course, while the other races will be a mile in length.
“We really enjoyed hosting it (last year),” Gore cross country coach T.W. Estes said. “This will be our third year. Last year was our biggest turnout. We had over 300 entries last year. It was a really good turnout. Were really excited to have it again.”
Besides host Gore, Sallisaw, Muldrow, Central and Webbers Falls are slated to have their teams and runners participating.
Estes said the course was prepared for Thursday’s race a couple of weeks ago.
“We had the course cut last week (of Aug. 14-18), so we’ve been practicing there last week and this week,” he said. “Whenever we’re not at this course, we practice at our school on a smaller course.”
Thursday meet’s course is one of the more even and level courses of any race to take place this fall.
“Our course is pretty flat for the overall aspect of the course, as compared to some,” Estes said. “We go to Camp Gruber (Braggs/Camp Gruber Invitational), and that’s a tough course. The kids love going to that one. They feel like they’ve really accomplished something. Getting to run on our course early on (in the season), they kind of know the spots where it’s going to burn a little bit more and where the spots are they can rest. It’s definitely an advantage with the heat and it being this early in the year.”
Speaking of the heat, while it is cooler this week, it played havoc last week.
“It was a nightmare last week,” Estes said. “We had to scale back down to about half of what we had been doing. You can’t get acclimated. It takes 10 to 14 days to do that, and we’ve only had about seven school days (as of Thursday). The humidity was a killer last week. This week will be cooler. This Thursday, it’s only going to be a high of 90. Our meet is in the morning, so we’re looking at (the temperature) probably 80 to 82 (degrees). Still, the humidity is going to be there. That’s the tough part.”
