For many of us, getting older isn’t something that we welcome. For the Northwestern Lehigh girls track and field team, it’s a very good thing. Coming into the season, the Tigers have much more balance than they did last season when they were a young team.

Lauren Schellhamer finished third in the Colonial League in the 400-meter dash and Caitlyn Miller, who placed second in javelin and sixth in discus, have both graduated.

Remaining with the team are some talented young student-athletes prepared to help push the team higher than its 8-2 record from last season and their third-place finish during both the regular season and in the league championship meet.

The girls 400-meter relay team finished third and the 800-meter relay team placed fourth at the Colonial League meet last season.

Both relay teams lost just one runner and look to come back strong again this year. The 4x400 has junior Naomi Glassberg and sophomores Haley DuBois and Abby Pomajevich back for this season and in the 4x800, all three returning runners – Emily Fagan, Emily Fisher, and Angela Klein - are juniors.

Junior Faith Yost took third in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles while classmate Paige Sevrain took bronze in the shot put last season.

Senior Ashley Haas also returns looking to improve on her third-place finish in the pole vault.

“We have a lot of ninth graders that are coming up through,” said head coach Chuck Groller. “We do have some holes but overall, we will be balanced.”

Senior Emma Nelson spends most of her time around the pit, the area of the track where jumpers train. She sees a big distinction between the Tiger boys and girls teams coming into the season, but likes where both are at.

“The jumpers are a little younger than what we have on the boys team, but we have a lot of new freshmen and sophomore talent coming in that we are really excited about along with the returning jumpers,” said Nelson of the girls team.

Nelson has her sights set on reaching new lengths in the triple jump.

“Triple jump is my focus, and I would like to get over 36 feet this year,” she said. “I think with how things have started for me it is a possibility. With this being my senior season, it would be great to go out on a high note and really make the most of the season and have as much fun as I can.”

Groller and softball coach Josh Zimmerman know each other well from serving together as assistant coaches on the football team under Josh Snyder.

The two found themselves in a friendly battle for talent this spring when freshman basketball players Brooke Balliet and Riley McGinley both were considering whether to go out for softball or track. Being friends, Groller and Zimmerman set themselves for a little friendly competition to see if one of them could land both.

As often happens, the two student-athletes made different choices so Balliet will participate in track and field while McGinley hits the diamond for Zimmerman.

“Brooke is doing really well here and enjoying it and that’s what matters,” said Groller with a laugh. “There is a lot of camaraderie among the coaches from different sports, for instance, we have Jordan Smith, the girls’ soccer coach as an assistant and he brings a lot of athletes to the program. It’s the same with coach Matt Fritz and Chris Stitzel, the cross country coaches.”

Overall, Groller is excited about the team’s chances and likes the variety of athletes that will make up the girls’ team this season. While the jumpers are young, there is a lot of experience and an overall good balance of student-athletes.

“We have a couple other athletes that did well at the Colonial League meet and we’re just looking for bigger things as we go,” said Groller. “You know the old motto that we have here in that we are homegrown, and we don’t rebuild, we reload. We have some athletes who are particularly good and very resilient and play two or three sports for us.”