This season, Kevin Clark knows exactly where to start with his boy’s track team.
The Mountain View High School coach’s roster is loaded with talented 400 meter runners, guys who have run and won a lot of varsity races in the past. It makes for a strong 1,600 relay team, but Clark knows it has to add up to much more than that for the Mountain Lions to achieve their goals.
In short, that group has to branch out and find other areas to excel for the numbers to add up at the end. But if there is one race to start with, the 400 isn’t a bad square one.
“Usually going through the workouts, we find out the strengths of other people and where they place,” said senior Tyler Kress, who already knows his marching orders are in the hurdles. “Running the 400 is kind of a universal race; long distance kids can run it and short distance kids can try and keep up. I think it helps put you in a good place.”
A good place in Clark’s eyes will be among the leaders at both the Northern Conference and Class 4A state meets. To achieve those goals, finding additional landing spots for seniors Connor Logan and Zach Mehn and junior Nick Olsen will be key. Plus, Clark feels he has a group of youngsters in the event who can challenge the returning group and give his team more options.
But finding where to put everybody will be key.
“They’ve all got to branch off and pick up another discipline, like Kress going to the 300 hurdles,” Clark said. “Some are going to have to go up, some are going to have to go down. We’re definitely trying to do it from that 400 group.
“I think ultimately, the conference title isn’t won this early. For us, a large part of it could be if we can identify right away what areas the kids need to go, be it up, down or help our jumpers.”
The Lions return Josh Sandin, a senior who was second at state in the long jump, as well as discus thrower Tyler Sipes and distance runner Dixon Cooney. He feels the jumping numbers will be improved with the addition of transfer Jonathan Goltz.
But the highlight of the group should be that 1,600 relay, and Kress feels the sky is the limit when they figure out who will actually be on the track.
“We’re going to be scary good this year,” he said. “Nick coming off his sophomore year being on varsity and continuing with Zach and Connor and whoever else is on it, we have a lot of seniors who have just been busting their butts all four years and really figuring it out. There are certain meets we can switch it around for more strength to score points and win meets.”
The girls for Mountain View aren’t without their merits, namely the fact the past few years they’ve been one of the top two teams in the Northern Conference. With snow still melting off the ground, the long-range goals of the team haven’t actually been talked about, but junior Abby Watson says they are just naturally there.
“I think it’s kind of unspoken,” she said. “I think (winning conference is) definitely a realistic goal. I remember my freshman year when we won, it was a super-fun experience. I think it’s definitely a goal of ours.”
Personally, she’d like to return to her state-placing form in the triple jump from her freshman season, and she hopes to follow the same path she did in diving. She placed at state as a diver and triple jumper as a freshman, didn’t do as well as a sophomore, but came back this past winter and placed high at state on the diving board.
It’s an arc that has aided her confidence, as well as her additional off-season work.
“Definitely. I’m hoping to do really well at state this year,” she said. “I did summer track, and I tried to get stronger in the fall, so I’m hoping that my hard work will pay off.”
There are other scorers to count on as well for the Lions. Riley Cooney and Rachel Franklin should cover the middle and distance events, Baylee Butcher is a talented jumper and Jessica Wakefield will provide points in the throws. Moriah Zachary, Andrea Baumann and Kacey Uhlenbrock give Clark a strong base to form talented relay groups.
“The experience this group has, girls like Moriah and Andrea and Kacey all have a handful of state meet medals,” Clark said. “They have experience at the big meets, and we’re hoping we can develop a few more to get those relays back in the state finals.”
Mike Brohard can be reached at 635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com or on Twitter @mbrohard and @RHpreps
