Last season was what has become a typical season for the Salisbury track and field programs.
During the regular season the Falcons do their best to compete in dual meets against much larger teams, some with more than five times the number of athletes as Salisbury. But when the postseason comes along, the small school in south Allentown often shows that pound-for-pound, it’s one of the top track and field programs in the area.
“Last season was our smallest squad ever,” said Salisbury head coach Victor DeOliveira. “Despite that, we were able to win three [dual meets] on the boys side, but the girls squad was just too small to hit the win column.
“We have a larger squad this year, but it will be a very inexperienced group. As usual, we have good quality athletes in various events but our squad size hinders us during the regular season. We hope to be as competitive as possible in preparation for the postseason where we usually have good showings for our size.”
That’s been the norm for a program that has had several Division I college recruits over the past decade.
Salisbury crowned two Colonial League individual champs last year and had seven top-three finishes at leagues. Those finishes were compiled by just five athletes and three of them have graduated in Melena Koutch, who was a girls league high jump champ last year, Quintin Stephens (third place in two jumps) and Gio Hines (third place in 100).
One league champ returns for the Falcon boys team in Tyson Utesch, a Lehigh University recruit who won the league pole vault title last year and took third at districts.
Another Lehigh recruit returns for the boys team in Hunter Bleam, who finished top 10 in four Colonial League Championship events last year. He took second in high jump, third in shot put, seventh in discus and 10th in triple jump. Bleam went on to a district title in high jump and a sixth-place finish in that event at states. He was also second in the district in shot put.
Another member of the boys team that returns after a solid showings in last year’s postseason are senior Kyle Artis. At leagues last year Artis finished fifth in triple jump, eighth in pole vault and was part of a sixth-place 4x100 relay team.
The girls team returns senior Kathy Medina, whose top events are the 100- and 200-meter dashes, and sophomore Brooke Bleam, whose primary events are all three jumps and pole vault.
The Falcons got their season underway Tuesday with a meet at Palmerton. They continue the season with a meet at Northern Lehigh next Tuesday, April 5 before hosting Southern Lehigh for their first home meet of the season on Thursday, April 7.