Track team opens against Kuna

The Mountain Home Tiger track squad travels to Kuna tomorrow (Thursday) for its first track meet of the season.

Mountain Home Tiger head track coach Rich Urquidi indicated they had a good turnout for track this season.

"We've had between 60 and 65 kids out and we've been pleased with how everybody's been working hard for the past two weeks, and everybody's been there working hard, so we're excited to get going this Thursday."

Among the athletes back this year include five state qualifiers from last year. Kacy Barrie and Troi White are back running the hurdles. Lawrence Johnson returns in the 800 meter run, as does Eric Smith in the pole vault, and Lee Pierce in the 3200 meter run. Brandon Sloan narrowly missed qualifying in the distances last year, but did make it to state in cross country last fall.

Jerome, Nampa, Caldwell and Mountain Home are all scheduled to be at the Kuna meet this week, and Coach Urquidi expects it to be a good test for his team.

"We're really young in the boys. We've got quite a few new kids, so we'll see how they're going to be. We have quite a few freshmen sprinters, so when they go up against the some of the older seniors, that's pretty tough for them, so we'll see how they do. I think we probably have more returning girls than we do on the boys side, so we're looking forward to seeing how our girls can compete."