Reed and Spanish Springs both have several small track and field meets under their belts this season. But Friday and Saturday they will get to see what their athletes are really made of.

Last year saw over 1700 athletes compete at the Reed Sparks Rotary Invitational and the influx of track and field talent is only a few days away from hitting the Rail City again.

Both boys squads did fairly well a year ago. The Spanish Springs boys placed third, while Reed was sixth, and many of those athletes are back.

Fans should be on the lookout for Cougars senior Sullivan Stevens in the hurdles events. He placed third in both races a year ago, and hasn’t lost so far this spring.

Fellow SSHS senior Justus Mora already has turned in a notable performance at the Reed Rotary. He took third in the 100-meter dash last year, an event he’s won in three straight weeks this season. Teammate Aaron Cross has finished second behind Mora in all three local meets.

“This will definitely let us see what some of our kids who are undefeated are capable of doing,” Spanish Springs track and field coach Pat McGuire said. “Anytime you can go to a big meet, it’s enjoyable. Then your kids are really able to test themselves by running against other schools and seeing how fast they really are.”

The Reed boys might not be challenging for many high finishes this weekend. Jesse Robards was the only Raider who took first at the Huskies Challenge this past weekend. He won the triple jump. He placed sixth at least year’s Reed Rotary.

Coach Dale Moss also said Chris Gay is looking good in the one- and two-mile races, coming off a pair of second-place finishes.

Reed does have some strong female competitors though.

Nyasha LeSure is one of the favorites to capture the win in the high jump. The sophomore earned second a year ago at the Rotary as a freshman and then went on to win a regional crown.

Freshman Adriana Newell is also running fast times and has won in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races this year. Newell has the second fastest time in the North in the 400m so far.

Like the boys side, the Spanish Springs girls have some strong sprinters.

Senior Ari James and junior Laura Voss have finished either first or second in the 100-meter dash during the conference meets this spring. They were third and fourth at least year’s Reed Rotary. Voss was also second in the 300m hurdles and third in the 200m.

Anna Preciado's has been doing good things this year in the 800m and the 1600m as she looks to improve on her school record times.

Reed hosts the two-day event, but the Rotary Club of Sparks is the major underwriter for the meet and helps pay for the awards and some of the paid helpers. The Rotary Club of Sparks is also one of the most important charity groups for local kids. Not only does the Rotary Club provide scholarships for high school students, but it does many things throughout the year like donate dictionaries to all the third graders in Washoe County and host a Kids’ Free Fishing Day at the Sparks Marina.

Moss participated in the meet when he was in high school in the mid-1980’s, so historically it’s an important meet, especially when you consider five schools from California and one from Idaho will attend this year.

It’s an even more important meet this year for the Raiders since they have not participated in any large meets like they have in the past. Reed usually attends a California invitational early in the season, but last week was Spring Break for the schools who would normally host an invite. So this will be the first taste of the organized chaos of a large meet for many of the younger tracksters.

“To go into a competition like this with this many people it’s funny how every team is spread thin and the cream always rises to the top,” Moss said. “You find out who is good in what and you can foresee what regionals is going to look like a little bit.”

Thirty-nine schools will participate in the two-day event, including Sparks. Railroaders coach Adam Barrett is looking forward to seeing how his 3A athletes can compete against the bigger schools.

He said he expects Bryan Orellana to do well in the triple jump and Gaby Diaz, a reigning 3A state champion, to do well in the 800m and the mile. Diaz placed second and first in those events last weekend at the Fallon Elks Invitational. Orellana took fourth in the triple jump.

Both the boys and girls 4x200m relays turned in strong runs, while Barrett expects the girls 4x100m relay to also excel at the Reed Rotary.