Sports

Sioux teams young, unproven

By Matthew Semisch

04/07/2015

In a lot of ways, this year’s Westhope-Newburg (W-N) boys and girls track and field teams are unknown quantities.

The Sioux don’t have a dedicated track facility to practice on. There’s the Westhope Public School gym, but that’s mostly used during the spring sports season by the Westhope-Newburg-Bottineau softball team.

That leaves W-N’s track and field teams not knowing exactly what they have to work with until the meet season begins.

What Sioux head coach Anthony Lee already knows is that his teams this year are very young. Eleven boys and five girls make up this year’s W-N roster, and all of them are sophomores or below.

Experience could prove to be an issue for a team looking to take more athletes to this year’s state meet in Bismarck than W-N did a year ago. Then-senior pole vaulter Adair Dunham was the Sioux’s lone state qualifier in 2014, finishing sixth in her event.

Sophomore Dawson Dunham could be the Sioux’s top returner this year. He finished fifth in the 400 meter dash at last year’s North Central Region meet, and Lee hopes to see improvement from him this year.

“Dawson was really successful last year as a freshman,” Lee said. “We’re hoping he can work himself into qualifying for state, and he should be someone people will have to look out for this season.”

W-N’s first meet of 2015 will take place on April 16 when the Sioux take part in the Rugby Invitational.