Two Grundy Center spring sports teams will begin their seasons Thursday.
The boys track & field team will travel to an invitational at Belle Plaine, where they’ll be the only North Iowa Cedar League team in attendance. The Spartans have numerous returning state qualifiers, and are expected to be especially strong in the distance and relay races. Head Coach Chris Conger says his team has great depth, and the early meets will be an opportunity for some underclassmen to prove themselves.
“Belle Plaine does a really nice job of treating our kids like it’s the first meet of the year,” Conger says. “They’re very accommodating and they’re nice and they help our kids out. So we enjoy going down there to Belle Plaine. A lot of our young kids will get an opportunity. We’re not going to beat the older kids up much at all. They’re going to run one, maybe two races. It’s going to be mostly for our younger guys. The next week we have two home meets that we get to kind of almost have some depth chart builders where we can race against each otherand kind of try to find out a pecking order.”
The Spartans were originally scheduled to begin their season Tuesday at Nevada, but that meet was cancelled due to weather. The meet will begin at 4:15 p.m.
The boys tennis team will begin its season at Waterloo Columbus, a meet that was originally scheduled for Tuesday. Nearly the entire lineup is expected to be back from last year’s team that went 5-5 in duals. Reigning NICL champion Tanner Laube went 14-1 at #1 singles, Elias Cakerice went 11-4 at #2 singles, and Jaren Lauver went 12-3 in #3 singles. The meet will begin at 4:00 p.m. at Byrnes Park.
