Returnees lifts Spring Valley's track and field hopes

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Spring Valley Cardinals

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SPRING VALLEY - Six returning letter winners for the girls' team and eight for the boys are numbers Spring Valley High School track team will count on greatly for the Cardinals' chances this season.

Spring Valley's girls team finished fifth in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference meet last season, fourth in the regional and ninth out of 36 teams in the sectional. They will have several members from the sectional champion cross country team running for them this spring including juniors Breanna Colbenson, who was a state place winner last year, Riley Bowman along with sophomores Emma Gaustad and freshmen Elizabeth Anderson and Pearl Davis.

Also back is sophomore hurdler Lille Anderson, a Dunn-St. Croix Conference champ in the hurdles along with senior athletes Shauna Berg, Brooke Jacobson, Leah Jameson and Bailey Bednarek.

"We have a good core group of hard working athletes coming back on the girls team and we expect improvement," SV coach Debbie Bowman said. "I think we can put together strong 3200 and 800-meter relay teams with our returning athletes."

State qualifier, senior Conner Sieracki is back for the Cardinal boys team and will be joined by D-SC and regional hurdle champ, sophomore Rex Gould along with sprinters senior Kyle Bosshart and sophomore Tyler O'Keefe and senior middle distance runners Brian Fesenmaier, Jaron Turner and Steve Von Haden. Bosshart and Gould will also be in the jumping events as well.

Bowman feels a sizeable group of underclassmen will provide a boost to a Redbird boys' team which finished seventh in the D-SC meet but third in the regional meet.

"It's going to take a few meets to know for sure but we think they'll be able to do well in several different events and really add to the depth of the team. We're really happy with the group of kids we have."

Tags: track and field, spring valley, sports, prep