Harrison High School will be the focus of the area track and field scene Saturday when 20 teams from around the state compete.Preliminaries for the Harrison Invitational begin at 9:15 a.m. with finals at 1 p.m.The host Panthers have only a handful of seniors. They hope raw talent can carry them while they gain experience.”It’s a double-edged sword to have such a young team because I can try to mold them the way I want, but it’s a building process,” coach Al Melo said. “The strongest part of our boys’ team is our relays, and our girls are very good at the shot put and discus throws.”Harrison is led by sprinter John Wingo, who runs three relays as well as the 400-meter dash.”We have been working very hard in practice to get our handoffs right on the relays,” Wingo said. “We just want to get to state again with our relays and help the team.”The Harrison girls might not be as strong as the boys’ team, but they still have set high goals.Thrower Alyssa Mlodzik said she and her teammates are hoping to steadily improve.The Fountain-Fort Carson boys are off to a strong start. Sprinter Brock Emory is the leader of the Trojans, and he heads the 3,200 relay, which is ranked third in the state to this point. A top-three finish at the large meet would make for a good weekend.”We are anxious to see what some of the teams from Denver look like, but local teams like Doherty are also very good this year,” coach Ben Montoya said.Doherty, led by sprinter Kenny Chambers, finished second to the Trojans last weekend at the Lancer Invitational.The other large meet this weekend is the Pueblo Centennial Invitational – also a 9 a.m. Saturday start – which features a strong girls’ team from Widefield.

Construction on the USOC headquarters building at 27 S. Tejon St. Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette