The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - Track and field may not be a team sport, but the Waitsburg Prescott Cardinals do have a team goal for the season: hang on to their status as district champions, which they've held six of the last seven years.

New head coach Jeff Bartlow said that from what he has seen of the 2011 team after nine practices, he believes the Cardinals can do it.

"I think we can defend our title," Bartlow said this weekend, as he was putting the finishing touches on this year's roster of athletes. "The turnout is good. We'll have one of the bigger teams in the league again."

This year's track and field team has 41 members, including eight girls from Waitsburg and two girls from Prescott; 18 boys from Waitsburg and three boys from Prescott; plus 18 boys from the Jubilee Youth Ranch.

Last year, the team had just a few more.

But strength on the WP team doesn't come from numbers alone.

Although the Cardinals "lost a ton of talent" to graduation, some gifted and dedicated athletes are ready to take the place of last year's seniors, while others have finally recovered from injuries that kept them from competing in 2010. Several new competitors have joined the team from out-of-town schools.

Returning for the boys are senior distance runner Seth Deal and senior thrower Eshom Estes. Senior Justin Armstrong was hampered by a hamstring injury last year, but he's fully recovered now and expected to do well in sprints and relays. Senior distance runners Nick Carpenter, Matthew Montgomery and Austin Beasley form the rest of the veteran track contingent.

Juniors Jared Morris and Brian Done are two welcome additions from the outside, Bartlow said. Morris is a fast and skilled soccer player who transferred here from the East Coast. He will be a competitive sprinter and jumper.

Done is a transfer from Walla Walla High School, where he excelled at the 400, 800 and 1,600-meter races plusthe4x4relay.Bartlow said another junior, Logan Wanous, is the second-fastest on the team and "very explosive."

Bartlow further counts on jumper and relay runner sophomore Billy Brown; sprinter and relay runner sophomore Alex Dill; sophomore jumper Logan Dozier and thrower and jumper sophomore Ben Shafer to perform well this year.

He has not worked with many of the Jubilee athletes yet, but he knows Yusef Johnson is a good javelin thrower; and brothers Antonio and James Thompkins are outstanding sprinters and relay runners. Peter Wilson, a Jubilee senior who played on the Cardinals' football team, is a reliable thrower, doing shot, discus and javelin, Bartlow said.

On the girls' side the team is somewhat limited by the small number of athletes. The Cardinals will barely have enough to field a relay team. Juniors Ronnie Hulce, Kristin Potter and Kayla Huxoll and sophomore Krystal Harris will make up the relay team with Maddy Witt as a possible alternate. But that's the bare minimum for a relay group. If one of them gets injured, it will suspend their competition because the event requires the alternate, Bartlow said.

Isabel Benito, a senior, who has already proven herself as a cross country runner, will anchor the girls' long distance department, while Hulce is also an outstanding hurdler.

That versatility is true for other girls on the team, including Harris, who has much improved as a jumper; Witt, who can take on the long, triple and high jumps; and first-year athletes Yesenia Escalante and Ruby Espinoza, who are both hurdlers and jumpers.

Senior Christy Poirier is a specialist in shot, discus and javelin, rounding out the team's veteran ranks.

Of the 17 track and field events, the only one the Cardinals will not compete in this year is pole vaulting. There is no local place to practice the activity, and the program has no coach who specializes in it. Students have to travel to Walla Walla for the nearest sanctioned facility, so the combine decided not to participate in it, Bartlow said.

The team's first meet is the Papa Wells Invite in Yakima this Saturday, starting at 11 a.m.

WP Track Team

Girls:

Benito, Isabel

Cook, Amanda

Escalante, Yesenia

Espinoza, Ruby

Harris, Krystal

Hulce, Ronnie

Huxoll, Kayla

Potter, Kristin

Poirier, Christy

Witt, Maddy

Guay, Jessica

Roberts, Kendra

Boys :

Armstrong, Justin

Beasley, Austin

Brown, Billy

Brown, Zach

Carpenter, Nick

Deal, Seth

Dill, Alex

Done, Brian

Dozier, Logan

Estes, Eshom

Garcia, Will

Kitselman, Trent

Leroue, DJ

Meserve, EJ

Morris, Jared

Moser, Ben

Sandoval, Albert

Sandoval, Eric

Shafer, Ben

Wanous, Logan

Arrum, Dylan

Carter, Max

Fredricks, Kyle

Gonzalez, Angel

Johnson, Yusef

Paxson, Brice

Thompkins, Antonio

Thompkins, James

Ebong, Roy

Wilson, Peter

Montgomery, Matthew