The Aberdeen Central track and field teams have high expectations entering the spring as the Golden Eagles will feature a blend of experience and youth.

Last season, the girls’ team had to replace key contributors, while the boys returned the majority of their team. This year, the roles seem to be reversed.

The Central girls bring back several key runners and coach Jim Appl says the field events will be the key to the team’s success

“Our field events are going to be our strength this year, without a doubt,” Appl said. “We’ve got a lot people coming back, and we have a bunch of them that qualified last year who are back for us. That’s kind of the key thing right there is we have experience coming back in those events.”

The Golden Eagles return a pair of juniors that placed in field events at the state meet in Grace Kuch and Ciara Frank. Kuch placed fifth in the discus, while Frank tied for sixth place in the high jump.

Appl also noted that the team will be strong in the 400-meter and 800-meter relays. Senior Claire Schaunaman and junior Abigail Witte will be runners to watch as the two anchored both relays last season. Central placed sixth in the 4×100 and eighth in the 4×200 at the state meet last season. Freshman Gracie Rife, who placed seventh in the 100-meter dash at the state meet, was also a part of those relay teams.

Appl also feels strongly about the pole vault.

“We have Kiana Joerger in there and a couple of other ones in our pole vault,” Appl said. “That’s another strength for us, and our throws are, and our high jump.”

On the boys’ side, the Golden Eagles must replace several key athletes that made an impact on the Central track and field program, including Sam Rohlfs, Josh Martin, and Jacob Merxbauer. Rohlfs was a two-time long jump and triple jump champion, and broke the state meet record in the long jump (23’05.25”), while Martin won the 3,200-meter run as a junior. Martin and Merxbauer also placed in a number of other state events during their careers.

Central boys’ coach Greg Murley noted that his team lost some talent, but knows that is the nature of high school sports.

“We lost some really key, key players, but you know, we’re in high school sports, and you’re going to lose good athletes,” Murley said. “The goal here is to make them as good of athletes as they can be and then move on and find the next group.”

The next group is right in front of Murley this season. Despite the losses to graduation, the Golden Eagles return several athletes that are looking to step in and fill big shoes. Murley said Aiden Heimann and Drew Salfrank will be key contributors for Central this season.

“The hurdler is obviously Aiden Heimann,” Murley said. “He’s the defending state 300-meter champion. We kind of expect that he’ll be in the running for both the 110’s and the 300’s. Drew Salfrank is a state placer in the quarter, and also a record holder in three of our relays from last year that broke records.”

Salfrank placed fourth in the 400-meter dash at the state meet.

Central also has several other athletes that will contribute in other events, including Carter Dingman in the 400-meter dash and several relay teams, Gabe Johnson in the relays, Ethan Fergel in the pole vault, and Brian Johnson in the shot put.

With the current snowfall, both Murley and Appl say they are thankful that Northern State University has allowed them to practice indoors during the college’s spring break and cannot wait until their teams can practice outside more frequently.

“I can’t thank Northern enough for them allowing us the opportunity to come in and have a chance to do a little bit of a workout because without that opportunity that would really put us in a bind,” Appl said.

As far as the upcoming season, Murley says he is excited about the meets that are scheduled, pointing to a pair that excite him the most.

“The ESD meet is a great meet,” Murley said of the Eastern South Dakota Conference event. “I was raised in the ESD, so, I mean, for me, I did it through high school. It’s a nine-school meet with a bunch of coaches I really like and respect from other schools. That’s always a fun one for us. Obviously, the state meet is a pretty premier meet.”

Appl reiterated that the ESD meet and state meet are the two that Central looks forward to.

“The one we always get excited for is the conference meet,” Appl said. “We score the most points we can at that meet, along with the State Meet.”

As far as expectations, both coaches are striving to see improvement each week and put the best teams on the track and in the field at the end of the season.

“Our expectations and goals (are) just work as hard as we can and put together the best team we can and run our best at the conference and state meets,” Murley said.

“Our goals are to improve every week. We just want to see an improvement from week to week to week,” Appl said. “I tell the kids ‘I don’t ever get too excited in March and I don’t get too excited in April.’ We want to make sure we are improving throughout the year. We don’t want to peak early; we want to be peaking at the right time.”