Track and field is yet another sport which will be starting its season in the next week. Both boys and girls teams will have their first meet Friday March 20 at Wesleyan University. Though neither sides sent a significant number of people to the state meet in 2014, returners will have a big role on this years team.

Returning state competitors include junior Bridget Mizener in hurdling events, senior Hayley Krumwiede in jumping events and senior Regan Johnson in the 200-meter dash, among others who competed in relay events. Head coach Jon Preister is looking for these girls to lead the team this year, but knows there is much more to the sport to make the team successful.

“We should be able to put a lot of girls in state and hopefully finish in the top five or six teams,” Preister said. “We graduated three seniors who were state qualifiers in distance, so we’ll need some underclassmen to step up.”

As for the boys, the outlook will be much of the same. Senior Njali Kowa, a jumper who finished in sixth place in the long jump at last year’s state meet, and junior Jakob Phillips, who competed in the 3200-meter relay at last years state meet, are the only two returning state competitors.

Similar to the girls team, it will be time for underclassmen to step up in order for the team as a whole to be successful. Luckily, there will be new faces on the team as well, including juniors Braxton Anderson and Logan Duryee, each of whom filled big roles on the football team this year.

With all into account, it will be a year of experience building for both boys and girls track and field teams. With each having very few returners, it will take a season of hard work to get to the state podium at the end of the year.