|
Monday, July 25, 2005 Baylor University track officials boast that the cross country course being built at the foot of Lake Waco dam will offer the best views in the sport. Baylor has graded a winding path below the dam and plans to host three meets there this fall, including the Big 12 cross country meet in October. The events could draw hundreds of spectators, who will be able to view the entire course from the hike-and-bike trail atop the dam. "It's a very unique site in that you'll be able to see all of it," said Baylor track coach Todd Harbour. "There's no place in the country that has a site like it." Baylor has permission to host the Big 12 event as well as two major high school events this year, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will have to decide whether it can be a permanent course. Baylor officials will submit a five-year plan for the course to the Corps' district office in Fort Worth. But local Corps officials at Lake Waco wholeheartedly support the project. "We're very excited to have that," said assistant lake manager Jeff Boutwell. "We'll do anything we can to get this going." Harbour got the inspiration for the project a couple of years ago while crossing the dam. "One day I was running out there with the team, and as I looked down I said, 'Oh my gosh, that's the area,' " he said. "We started dreaming, and now it's become a reality." Baylor, with volunteer labor from Waco Paving, cut the trail through a 70-acre area that was overgrown with Johnson grass. Harbour is hoping to keep the trail planted in short Bermuda grass and mowed regularly. Harbour said the new 4-kilometer course will help Baylor's track program recruit new runners and attract more meets. In the past, Baylor has hosted cross country meets at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, but the new site offers more room. At the dam site, a large starting area will allow 200 to 250 runners to start simultaneously without congestion in the first 800 meters. The trail will be open to the public and accessible from the popular hike-and-bike trail that the Corps built across the dam five years ago. The hike-and-bike trailhead and parking area is located on the west side of Airport Drive. While much of the course is flat, the south side has a slope about 20 feet high, providing some challenges in the middle of the course. Baylor runners Cody Wells and Mitch Sanders checked out the course this week on a visit with Harbour and assistant coach Jon Capron. After a brisk run down the slope and around the bend, they pronounced the course top-notch. "That's going to be sweet. It's really fast," said Sanders, a junior from Katy. Wells, a senior from Crawford, said his family often comes to see him run, and the vantage point of the dam should be an attraction for spectators. Harbour said college meets draw hundreds of visitors who will eat in restaurants and spend two nights in local hotels. He said there's no reason the course couldn't be used to recruit huge events such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association's prenationals or the state University Interscholastic League finals. "Those would bring in some huge numbers," he said. City parks and recreation director Rusty Black said the new course would add to Waco's reputation as a sports mecca, along with new facilities like the tennis center and ballfield complex on Lake Shore Drive and Waco Independent School District's football stadium. "If you look at it across the board, Waco has made remarkable strides in sports facilities," Black said. "All that combined is indicative of the value from an economic development perspective that sports has in our community." Black said the city has been working with Baylor on the cross country project and might be a party to a lease agreement for a permanent course. In the case of the nearby Heart of Texas soccer fields, the Corps leases the land to the city, which in turn contracts with the Heart of Texas Soccer Association to manage the fields. jbsmith@wacotrib.com 757-5752
|