A new indoor track season kicked off on Nov. 7. Coach Robert Torres has high hopes for both the men’s and women’s teams this year.

At last year’s championships, the women’s team placed fourth out of 14 teams and the men’s team placed fifth out of 10.

This year, Torres hopes both teams will do better. “As long as everyone shows up and puts the work in, we should be good,” he said.

Senior athlete Derek Alban believes the men’s team will do well. In addition to returning runners, the team “has a lot of new kids.”

The women’s team also has “a lot of talent from last year,” Torres said. Last year, the women’s team broke 16 school records, the most records broken in one season. Most of the record breakers are returning this year, with only four of last year’s record breakers having graduated.

Currently, according to Torres, both teams are better at running than field events, such as long jump, pole vault, or shot put. Torres hopes this imbalance will even out as the season progresses. Several practices have already been devoted to field events.

Rebecca Driver is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.