Photos courtesy of Photoworks Left: Pictured above is the Marshall boys track and field team. A complete roster was not available at press time. Right: Pictured above is the Marshall girls track and field team. A complete roster was not available at press time.

MARSHALL — Last season, the Marshall boys and girls track and field teams had a solid year, with multiple individuals and a relay team reaching the state meet. With a strong and balanced group of youth and veteran leaders, Marshall will look to increase the number of state competitors under boys coach Dave Sample and girls coach Marie Sample.

Boys

On the boys side, Marshall will have nine seniors, but will also have a lot of youth on its roster. Dave Sample said since they have such a young roster, his main expectations are for them to continue to grow each day.

“I guess that’s part of the good thing about having a young boys team is not having a set expectation, but just being able to see how much growth we can have and hopefully we’ll be pleasantly surprised with some of them,” he said.

Dave Sample said an area of strength for them will be their throwers, with senior Eddie Garcia leading the way.

“Our throwers are probably one of our stronger areas this year,” Dave Sample said. “Hopefully we can expect some big things from our throwers; Eddie’s [Garcia] our senior thrower this year and hopefully he’ll be leading the team to good things.”

Dave Sample added they also hope to improve in their sprints, an area where they are really young.

“Sprinting. On the boys side, especially, we’re really young,” he said. “With a young boys team, it’s really making sure that the boys understand the difference between a senior and a freshman is a huge difference and if they stick with it, keep at it, they’re going to get there. It’s about building and making sure they stick with it and we’ll see good improvement.”

Girls

On the girls side, Marshall has plenty of experience back from a season ago, led by Bellamy Sukalski, Allyson Sample and Miracle Tucker. They also have a nice mix of youth, including Taleigha Bigler, Autumn Deutz and Bri Simpson.

“We’ve got a really nice vaulter in Autumn, she’s just an eighth-grader but she’s really taking hold of the pole vault side. Bellamy’s a sixth-year competitor for us, a state meet competitor; she’s got an injury right now but she will definitely help lead the way again and try to get back to state,” Marie Sample said. “That distance team is solid with Taleigha, Allyson and Miracle. Bri is going back and forth as a mid-distance right now, and she would like to get that 400 to state so she’s been doing some sprint workouts and is a solid returner.”

Marie Sample said an area of strength for them will be their mid-distance and distance events as well as some hurdling events.

“On the girls side, our mid-distance and distance will be solid again and I feel like we’ve got a couple of hurdlers who have an opportunity to do well at conference and maybe qualify for Howard Wood and maybe have a shot at getting to state as well,” she said. “We want to continue to work with our youth and fill some spots on the sprint side and then on the distance side we’ve got some older kids that have some goals to try and get out in a few individual and relay events.”

Marie Sample added an area they hope to improve on is their sprint relays as well as their triple and long jump and throwing.

“Our sprint relays. I’d really like to improve on our sprint relays and put together some competitive teams. We also want to work on our long jump and triple jump and getting a few more throwers and hurdlers as well,” Marie Sample said. “In our throwing area, coach Sam Nielsen is really working hard to get some of them involved and try to think about advancing their level as well.”

As they move forward, Marie Sample said she’s looking forward to watching their kids compete and continue to work towards achieving their goals, both individually and as a team.

“The kids have been working hard and they’re eager to compete, so just letting them get into meets and see where they’re at and then taking where they’re at and try to build them up from there. Take the puzzle pieces and put them together for our relays and start thinking about maybe a conference championship at the end of the season and what we can do with that and really just helping everybody grow,” she said. “There are a lot of kids to work with, so it’s always a challenge to get everybody the attention that they need so they can grow but we’ve got really good leadership and a great coaching staff, so I’m looking forward to having some opportunities to see them compete and build and grow from there.”