Track athletes off to the races

The starting gun has sounded for Whitefish track and field athletes, who began their season at Flathead on Tuesday after press time.

As his team is full of young, fresh faces, head coach Derek Schulz said the goal for these first couple meets are to build some confidence and see what he has to work with.

“We’re going to be a young, inexperienced team initially,” he said. “We’re just gaining some experience getting a meet under our belt.”

However, Schulz did point to a few returning athletes that he thinks will be ready to lead the team. Schulz noted Lee Walburn, Kate Doorn, Lydia Kryshak and Lauren Schulz will be ready to step up this season.

On Saturday Whitefish will travel to Frenchtown before returning to Flathead again for the Flathead Time Trials next Tuesday.

Moving forward, Schulz said the goal is always the same — constant improvement so they’re at their best at the end of the year.

“Just to improve, not take things too seriously early. Find good events for kids and spread ourselves out and get event coverage and go from there,” he said. “This weekend we won’t be maxed out on events, but we’ll just step it up a little bit one meet at a time and go from there.”