Stadium gets first run for George/Love Invite

PORTALES — Greyhound Stadium will host its first track meet today as Portales High is putting on the annual George/Love Invitational.

The meet, which will feature Portales and 13 other teams, will use the stadium, a north side practice field and the old track on the corner of University Drive and Avenue O. It will begin at 3:30 p.m.

Rams track and field coach Glenn Johnson and his team are glad to put the new facility to use, and he said finding other teams to participate wasn't hard at all.

"When we opened it up for invitation, we had to very quickly shut it down because we ended up with 14 teams in a hurry," Johnson said. "Opening meet, first time meet, it's going to be very crowded, but I am looking forward to us putting on a great meet."

An added advantage to the new stadium is that it is very similar to the University of New Mexico's facility, which hosts the state meet.

"It's been great having track meets over at our place at the high school, but being able to run in a facility like this that is comparable to running a state meet in Albuquerque,"

MEET INFO

Attending

• Artesia, Carlsbad, Clovis, Clovis Christian, Hobbs, Lovington, NMMI, Portales, Roswell, Ruidoso, Sundown, Texico, West Las Vegas.

Schedule

• 3:30 p.m., old track: Boys long jump, boys triple jump, boys/girls shot put, boys/girls discus.

• 3:30 p.m., Greyhound Stadium: Girls triple jump, girls long jump, boys/girls high jump, boys/girls pole vault

• 4:30 p.m, ENMU north practice field: Boys/girls javelin

• 5 p.m., Greyhound Stadium: All other events.

"It is just exciting, tremendous — a great thing for our school, our program and our community," Johnson said.