The real Olympics for us -- track and field -- are starting. We will have action photos by Vic Sailer's PhotoRun crew, starting with the opening ceremonies.

Cross Country's Coming --- and we are getting ready with all the preview information you need.

• NEW FRIDAY : 26th Foot Locker Cross Country Championships - meet pages
• Georgia pre-season rankings - Collins Hill leads both boys and girls lists.
• Mt. SAC Invitational - Oct 22-23 at Walnut CA - This is the giant of high school cross country meets in the US, with 16,000 runners entered in 90 races. Races start as close as 8 minutes apart, putting three races at once on one of the most demanding courses in the country.
• Bull Run Invitational - Sep 18 Parkton MD - a major interstate meet on the very demanding 3-mile course which is the site of the Maryland State Meet.
• Midwest region preview - York IL may have its best boys team ever, and that's saying a lot. Clarkston MI is leading girls team. Analysis by Midwest Editor Scott Bush.
• Florida preview - Jesuit boys and Holy Trinity Academy girls lead pre-season lists by Southeast Editor Ricky Quintana.
• 32nd Manhattan Invitational - Oct 9 New York City - Mt. SAC would challenge Manhattan's claim as biggest and best, but this is clearly the biggest meet east of the Rockies, with 10,000 or so runners.
• Portage Invitational - Oct 9 Portage MI - In 6 years, the Portage Invitational has become one of the Midwest's premiere meets under the energetic leadership of local coaches Dan Wytko and Bill Fries.
• 6th Great American Cross Country Festival - Oct 1-2 Cary NC - Invented by Rick Hill and continued by the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, the Great American has become an instant classic on the high school cross country scene. It is the premier in-season team competition in the country, with at least half of the teams on the starting line of the seeded races generally ranked nationally by Marc Bloom in his Harrier Magazine Super 25.
• 4th Midwest Meet of Champions - Sep 11 Hilliard OH - Davidson Hilliard OH coach Pat Schlecht's concept attracts more and better teams each year. It is the first major meet to give current year clues for top regional and national rankings. High School runners showed how to cope 3 years ago when the inaugural meet went on 4 days after 9/11.
• 6th Iolani Invitational - Sep 18 Oahu, Hawaii - In its sixth year, this meet continues to grow in stature with a record 30 mainland teams entered. They will find tropical heat offset by cooling beaches at a mountainside setting where the film "Jurassic Park" was filmed.
• Calendar of Meets
• States and Regions - State coverage is now organized into eight regions. US News page will still index news of national significance.
• Foot Locker and NTN update
  Summer talks are bringing the high school cross country championship picture into focus.
  • Team Selection Process - New NTN Regional Rankings system is the heart of the process. To get ranked, teams must run fast and compete.
  • Eligibility update - the new Nike Team Nationals is structured to allow maximum participation within state association rules.
    "With excitement levels escalating as the date of the inaugural Nike Team Nationals cross-country extravaganza approaches, NIKE and the National Scholastic Sports Foundation today unveiled joint plans for how the first-year event will be contested within existing state association guidelines."
  • Foot Locker sponsorship - Foot Locker and Nike are near agreement for continued Nike sponsorship of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championship.
  • Regional editors - an editor for each region will collect cross country news for DyeStat.

Olympic Games 2004 Aug 13-29 Athens INDEX - Links

Vic's Pix photo albums by the PhotoRun crew of Vic Sailer, the Olympian T&F photographer Opening Ceremonies - gorgeous color and pageantry

We can't be in Athens, but we can tell you how to find everything on the Internet and on television. We will be following the Games that way, with a special eye on the young athletes who were recently high schoolers celebrated on DyeStat -- Alan Webb, Sanya Richards, Laura Gerraughty, Lashinda Demus, Allyson Felix, Chaunte Howard, Monique Henderson, Shalane Flanagan, Dathan Ritzenhein, Lauryn Williams, Lashauntea Moore, Jeremy Wariner, Jonathan Johnson, Sheena Johnson et al. We will have photos by Vic Sailer, the Olympian T&F photographer, and words of the New York Armory's Jack Pfeifer.

Where did they go to high school? - Jim Spier answers that question for Team USA. Thirteen states are represented by three or more athletes, headed by -- surprise! -- California with 20 and Texas with 11. Three high schools can claim two grads at Athens: SW Dekalb, Decatur GA (Terrence Trammell and Angelo Taylor), J.W. North Riverside CA (Chaunte Howard and Joanna Hayes) and St. Thomas Aquinas, Fort Lauderdale FL (Sanya Richards and Seilala Sue). Westbury HS in Houston TX has two hurdlers in the Olympics -- Bennie Brazell on the US team and Bayano Kamani on the Panama team. Kamani has tri-citizenship in Barbados, Panama, and USA. caribtrack.com - Jack Pfeifer of the New York Armory is in Athens with his sons Zeke and Ira and will tell us what they see, including the exploits of former HS stars of the Armory's big indoor track scene. Walt Murphy - Walt Murphy of New York City, one of the leading T&F statisticians in the world and the publisher of Eastern Track and XC Express, is in Athens (his 9th Olympics) in his usual role of supporting the television broadcasts. He writes from Athens when he has time.

NLI period ends for Class of 2004 -
1,700 College Choices by track and field athletes listed
The NCAA national letter of intent signing period for this year's seniors ended August 1. DyeStat has received 1,700 college choices by the class of 2004. If we missed you, send the information to John Dye.

• DyeStat Elite - Top 100 in US in most events.
  List #10 as of July 22 has 4,400 performances.
• National Junior Leaders - top juniors (under age 20), by Jim Spier and John Blackburn. As of June 27, after Junior Nationals, before World Juniors.
• Jim Spier's Top 5 outdoor - US top 5 leaders for 2004 outdoor season. As of June 27, after Junior Nationals.
• Gourley's List - Bob Gourley's national hammer throw rankings as of July 14 . Erin Donnelly RI 165-7 and Nate Rolfe WA 237-1 are still #1.
• Roth's Race Walk - by Michael Roth. Outdoor rankings as of June 19 . Zach Pollinger and Maria Michta lead the mile lists.