California track teams poised for strong seasons

In his first year as head coach of both the boys and girls' track teams, Jonathan Lindquist is just trying not to mess anything up, but he thinks he has a strong team to work with this season.

"Coach (Rick) Edwards built it from the ground up," said Lindquist. "It's a pretty solid team, especially on the boys' side. I got handed a really nice program, to be honest with you. I'm just trying not to wreck it."

Walker Borghardt, Dylan and Andrew Norton, Benigno Corona and newcomer, Josh Woodruff lock down the sprints for the Pintos, while Ramiro Garcia and Nathan Squires are leading the team in shot put and discus throwing. While Garcia and Squires participate in both events, Garcia leads in the discus throw and Squires in the shot put.

Allan Burger will hold down the pole vaulting duties, and Lindquist wants to get him over the 13-foot mark by season end.

"We've got Dylan and Drew, hopefully we're going to get some work out of them in the hurdles and the 4x400 (meter) and the 800," said Lindquist. "We've got Corona, he's a guy that can be helpful with the distance sprints. The 4x400, 400 and maybe the 800 as well. Walker Borghardt, he's a really good long jumper. He's a good sprinter and he'll get us quite a few points this year. Woodruff, he's got a lot of speed. He's going to be good for us but we're just trying to keep him healthy."

On the girls' side, Kayla Allison and Audrey Pickering have placed first in their first two meets in pole vault and shot put, respectfully. Katie Imhoff leads the Lady Pintos in distance races, recording a sub-six minute 1,600-meter run last Friday at the Tri County Open Track Meet.

"On the girls side, we're young," said Lindquist. "We have a few returning seniors, but mostly, they're young girls, a lot of freshmen and sophomores. They're kind of a work in progress but they work really hard and they'll be good down the road. We have to try to max them out this year and be as good as possible."

Lindquist thinks his team has a chance to qualify a lot of athletes for state, and he also likes where his team is at this early into the season.

"About where we've expected them to be," said Lindquist. "We're still not even close because we're not conditioned yet. What we have so far, expectations are right where we're expecting them to be. ... We're looking to bring a lot of kids to state."

The Pintos and Lady Pintos return to the track tomorrow at the Linn Invitational.