The boys' and girls' track teams have been working outside and enjoying the nice weather this week. The first competition for the track teams will be at Vermillion at the Dakota Dome in the Dan Lennon Invitational next Monday, March 29. Their first home appearance will be on Tuesday, April 13 at the Panther I meet.

The boys lost Curt Paradis and Matt Noakes to graduation and the girls lost Kelly Laleman, Laura Zwach, Kristin Sweetman and Brooke Averill.

"Obviously we are going to have to try to replace some real strength in the distance events due to our losses to graduation from the girls team," said Panther Coach Al Landa.

The girls team last year finished second in the true team state meet, won the sub-section meet and finished second in the section meet. They qualified the 4 X 100-relay team (McIntire, Schaar, Luckhardt and Fritz), the 4 X 800-relay team (Sweetman, Zwach, Gervais, Tholen and Luckhardt), and the 4 X 400-relay team ( Schaar, Gervais, Tholen and Luckhardt) for the state meet . They also qualified Bobbi Jo Buyck ( pole vault), Jillian Tholen (1600M), Tessa Nelson (high jump) and Melissa Luckhardt (400M) as individuals for the state meet.

"We have good numbers out for the boys team," said Landa. "There are some good athletes in the ninth grade class and there seems to be some strength in the dashes."

In addition, Landa's teams always have strength in the pole vault and the boys are well represented there. Jason Morin is back after missing last year's pole vaulting competition and he is joined by Kyle Stibbe, Chad Stibbe and Dan Tutt to form a very strong corps in the pole vault. The girls team returns Bobbi Jo Buyck in the pole vault who was a state meet qualifier in this event last year.

Golfers return numbers

The Panther golf team enjoyed working outside in the nice weather this week, hitting shots from the driving range at the Tracy Country Club, and from the high school soccer field.

"We are looking for improvement by both the boys and girls teams this season," said Golf Coach Randy McIntire. "We will not be deep in talent but should be improved due to experience if nothing else."

The Tracy/Milroy/Balaton girls' had a 15-25 dual meet record last season. They return everyone except Sara Macken, who has decided not to go out this year.

"The girls finished only one stroke back of the 212 Conference Championship BOLD team in the conference meet," observed McIntire.

The girls finished in sixth place in the section meet.

The boys team loses Bryan Jackson and Jake Peterreins from last year's team, but returns Eric Peterson, who just missed qualifying for the state meet. The boys compiled a 19-21 dual meet record last season, finished fourth in the conference meet, third in the sub-section meet. Jackson and Peterson qualified for the section meet.

The Panther golfers first meet is scheduled at Sanborn against Red Rock Central on Thursday, April 1. They will host Westbrook/Walnut Grove on Tuesday, April 6 in their first home meet.

Baseball squad opens April 6 at Luverne

The Panther 2004 baseball team began working out Monday in preparation for its opening game at Luverne April 6.

Vying for spots on this year's squad are Matt Person, Pat Spielmann, Eric Fraser, J. Hamilton, Anders Davidson, Ross Ladehoff, Ryan Stobb, Jerad Wendorff, Donald Strand, Dane Bloch, Brett Jackson, Vang Thao, Derek Radke, Derek Daniels, Sean Castle, Andy Nelson, Luke Walling, Sean Fox, Kirby Arens, Dan Dieter, Erik Frisvold, Derrick Vandromme, Tristan Larson, Dan Malmberg, Taylor Rignell, Adam LeClaire, Cole Cooreman, Paul Carlson, Matt Bauer, David McCoy, Shawn Stefanick, Chad Cooreman, Logan Sanow and Chris Swenson

Seventh and eighth graders out for baseball are Anthony Dolan, Kyle Fraser, John Gervais, Taylor Hagberg, Ryan Kaup, Eric Lanoue, Jeremiah Martin, Brian Schlager, David Schmidt, Cody Schons, Ryan Thooft, Spencer Zwaschka, Josh Anderson, Spencer Anderson, Travis Apperson, Tyler Bauer, Dane Bille, Isaac Dolan, Trent Edwards, Keith Engelkes, Aaron Frisvold, Adam Haecherl, Chris Hansen, Alex Jones, Mike Kern, Bo Kirsh, Jordan Rolling, Seth Swensen, Andrew Thooft, Dylan Vandromme, Jon Vang and Kayne Zwaschka.

Seniors who were graduated from last year's team were Greg Carlson, Austin Skoblik, Tim Byrne and Matt Schreier. The Panthers were 6-16 last year.