Some quick-hit news nuggets on a Wedneday morning:
- Former NAU star and Guatemalan Olympian Luis Grijalva, who still trains in Flagstaff under Mike Smith, met with president Bernardo Arevalo and vice president Karin Herrera of Guatemala.
Grijalva’s agent, Ray Flynn, posted on the social media site formerly known as Twitter that it was the first time Grijalva has been back in the country since his parents came to the U.S. when Luis was 2.
As has been well documented, Grijalva is among the tens of thousands “Dreamers” in the U.S. — young people whose parents brought them to the U.S. as undocumented immigrants. Grijalva has long since cleared up all visa and passport issues that threatened to prevent him from competing out of the country.
Grijalva, who grew up in Fairfield, Calif., is popular in his native country, even though his Spanish is, to be generous, a little rusty.
In the photo above, Grijavla is all smiles when meeting the Guatemalan president. Some might raise an eyebrow at the fact that Luis is wearing shorts for his meeting.
But as any Flagstaffian can tell you, shorts and a collared shirt does constitute as “dressing up” in Flagstaff.
- Hoka NAZ Elite marathoner Matt Baxter, fresh off an eighth-place finish Sunday at the New York City Half Marathon, will appear with former NAU Coach Ron Mann at Bright Side Bookshop (18. N. San Francisco St.) on Thursday at 6 p.m. to read from and talk about the book they co-authored about NAU’s dynastic distance running program, “Running Up the Mountain.” We reviewed the book last month.
- The Trail Running Film Festival, a documentary series, will be held at the Orpheum Theater on April 12. Tickets are going fast. Last year’s showing drew a crowd of 200. Tickets can be purchased here; prices range from $12 to $15. As was the case last year, Flagstaff running maven and race director Neil Weintraub will host the festivities, which includes a raffle, with Flagstaff legend Nat White. Weintraub shared that filmgoers can receive a $2 discount if they use the code NATRA2024 upon checkout.
- Attention prep runners: Registration is open for the Northern Arizona Lumberjack Cross Country Camp, run by Smith and NAU assistant coach Becca Pflugrad in association with Hypo2Sport. The camp runs from July 9-13. Cost is $825 for residency; $625 for commuters. Sign up here.
- And finally: One pro result involving Flagstaff runners escaped our attention last weekend. Under Armour Mission Dark Sky Distance runner Regan Yee, a Canadian Olympic steeplechaser, won two gold medals in the Canadian Indoor Championships in Montreal, taking the 800 meters at 2:15.05 last Saturday, and coming back the next day to take the 1,500 meters in 4:35.54.
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