Improve and compete

With a healthy team and the weather warming up, Creston girls track and field are looking to hit the ground running this season and get bring runners back to the state tournament.

After losing four seniors, head coach Clay Arnold is still feeling good about the state of his team despite southwest Iowa weather messing with their practice schedule.

“In the first three weeks (of the season) we went outside three times because the weather was so bad,” said Arnold. “It really wasn’t opportune to be inside to be indoors every day but we’ve seen the greatest amount of competition early in the season, so we’re really happy how competitive they were and how hard they’re working.

“This week we’re finally able to get outside and get some good work in,” added Arnold.

After starting the season in early March, Arnold has acknowledged the depth of the team in the 400 and 800 meter runs, but also acknowledges the loss of pivotal sprinters Kiersten Latham, Cayla Maitlen and Stephanie Hemsworth to graduation.

“We lost three big time sprinters (in Latham, Maitlen and Hemsworth). ...We’re going to have a lot of new faces in the sprint relays, but hopefully we’ll be able to groom them as we go,” said Arnold.

Of the returners, the Panthers bring back their top two point scorers in MaKenna Hudson (372) and lone senior Brielle Baker (322).

“MaKenna was the only four event champion in the Hawkeye 10, so obviously we’re going to need her to be big. Brielle, we’ll need her to be big and she’s had some great early season practices.

“Peyton Rice has been big the last few weeks. She’s always been the hardest worker on her teams and she’s just added another year of strength and training. She’s been an absolute beast.,” added Arnold.

Rice paired up with Baker, Hudson and Morgan Buxton in the 4x800 meter relay team that won a Hawkeye 10 title and was a state qualifier. The tandem will look to repeat their trip to state this season.

A challenging conference across all sports, Arnold knows what to expect from his opponents as the season starts.

“Glenwood will always have a deep team,” said Arnold. “They’ll be the team to chase as the defending team champions. (The) conference is really deep. ...Lewis Central will be good and Denison still has good athletes, so those teams will always be up towards the front.”

As a team, the Creston girls finished third in the conference last spring.

“Hopefully we’ll be right in the thick of things,” said Arnold.

Despite a deep Hawkeye 10, Arnold knows exactly what the young but experienced group are capable of achieving, and knows that the bar is high this spring.

“We’ve got plenty of talent,” said Arnold. “That’s not been an issue any of the years. We’ve got plenty of talent. It’s just keeping them healthy and keeping them focused is the big task at hand.”

The goals for the season are plentiful for the girls, but medaling on the track at state is on the forefront of Arnold’s mind.

“We haven’t won a medal on the track at state in four years,” said Arnold. “We’ve been winning some medals in the throws, but we’ve come up short. ... A lot of girls are real hungry. We’ve ran times that were good enough and we’ve put together squads that were good enough, but just haven’t got things done.

“The girls are real hungry in terms of getting some hardware from the oval up there, so that’s definitely a big time goal of ours. We’ve got many different possibilities to make that happen,” said Arnold.

NEXT UP – The girls will be at Iowa State today (Monday) for their first (indoor) meet of the spring season.

Season schedule

March 18 ­ ISU Indoor @ Iowa State University

March 22 ­ Pella @ Central College

March 28 ­ @ Clarke

April 2 ­ @ Clarinda

April 4 ­ @ Red Oak

April 11 ­ Ram Relays @ Lewis Central

April 16 ­ @ Dallas Center, Grimes

April 18 ­ Tiger/Knight Relays @ Carroll Athletic Stadium

April 23 ­ @ Chariton

April 25-28 ­ Drake Relays @ Drake University (for qualifying schools)

April 25 ­ @Carlisle

May 2 ­ H-10 Conference, @ Lewis Central

May 6 ­ @ Central Decatur, Leon

May 9 ­ State qualifiers, TBD

May 16-18 ­ State tournament @ Drake University