LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- High school track athletes from 180 schools from all over the state spent Thursday stuck inside instead of racing at the community track in Jefferson County.
The state track meet was postponed until Saturday and Sunday because of the snowfall.
"This is as bad as I remember in 10 to 12 years easily because there's no break in the action. Normally, you get a day or two of rain and you have a day to make things up and then move on. It isn't happening right now,” said Paul Angelico, the CHSAA Commissioner.
Safety and the health of the athletes competing, as well as those trying to drive from all over the state in the winter weather are the reasons for pushing the meet to the weekend.
The delay has students like those at Battle Mountain High School disappointed.
“This is pretty normal for us, which it's a shame that we got postponed because I think everybody woke up and was like, alright, cool, we know how to do this, this is something that we can handle, so everybody felt like we had a little bit of an advantage coming down,” said Douglas McMurrian, a Senior at Battle Mountain High School.
Meanwhile, school leaders are left trying to fund the extended trip to the metro area.
“It is going to cost us some extra money. We decided that staying down here was probably the best plan of attack considering it would be roughly the same cost to drive back in the bus, take the bus back and drive back tomorrow or Saturday morning,” said T.J. Simpson, a track coach at Battle Mountain High School.
While races will be wrapped up this weekend, they will also compete with graduation, forcing some students to choose between the two.