The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - The Bulldogs track and field team is ready to show off its growing talent at the first home meet of the season co-hosted with Waits­burg Prescott this week, head coach Dan Nechodom said.

The meet, which will draw league teams from Asotin, DeSales, St. John- Endicott, Tekoa-Oakesdale- Rosario, WP and Walla Wal­la Valley Academy, starts at 3:30 pm Wednesday. The afternoon is expected to be sunny with temperatures in the upper 60s.

"They're excited," Necho­dom said about the eight boys and seven girls on his young team. "I see a lot of potential for growth in this group."

Dayton posted promising results at last week's 1B/2B district meet in Milton-Free­water. Overall, the girls team placed sixth with Kaitlin Andrews garnering points for placing second in the 100 meters with a time of 13.11, second in shot put with 32- 08, second in javelin with 121-02 and for contributing to the 4x4 relay team that placed second behind power house Asotin in the 4x100 with a time of 56.12.

The other runners on the relay team included Angie Dedloff, who placed 11th in the 200-meter dash; Alexus Snyder; and Carissa Price, who placed 11th in the 100-meter dash. Kiara Biggar placed fifth in the 1,600-meter run. Angela Mascall came in sixth in the 200-meter race.

Nechodom said the girls inspire each other, particu­larly Dedloff and Price, who seem to go all out in every event. He said Biggar "is one of the toughest people I've ever worked with."

On the boys side, where the field of runners is fierce­ly competitive, Levi Laib placed 9th in the 800-meter run with 2:25 minutes and Brian Mascall placed 16th in the 400 meters with a time 1:01 minutes.

Nechodom described Laib, a sophomore, as a "powerful trainer" with a "heck of a lot of heart." Another runner, Andrew Mendoza, placed 28th in the 100-meter race, just behind teammate Tyler Cooper. But Nechodom said the sopho­more is making strides in becoming a better runner.

"He does not look like a sprinter," the coach said. "But I would not want to be in his way if he were a foot­ball player. His 100-meter run is getting smoother and smoother."

Nechodom has his eyes firmly on Andrews to make it to state in the 100-meter dash, javelin and shot put, three events in which she consistently places very high at all levels of competition. But all members of the Day­ton track and field team "are making some big jumps for­ward," he said. "They have hearts of gold regardless of their placing prospects."