Judging by the number of e-mails I've been receiving, there's a great deal of interest in the progress of the state meet course grooming. This article should help bring everyone up to date. As the accompanying photos show, the course is now entirely mowed. Jeff Bliven, assistant cross country coach at Smoky Hill High School, reports running the course in the last week and paying more attention to the "scenery" than to the footing. That's a good sign as it indicates the course is currently runnable. That's not to say, however, that all grooming of the course is complete. Sections of the course will still need to be rolled to further even out the footing. The Arapahoe County Fairgrounds has a device for precisely such an operation. Small, but nasty, items such as yucca and prickly pear cactus still need to be dug out of the course at points. That is an ongoing operation. The course will also be mowed one more time prior to opening weekend of the cross country season.