The Parkland boys track and field team is ready to defend its regular season Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title. But it won’t be easy.

“We have battles during our dual meet season that will help us build and get stronger for the postseason,” Parkland head coach Stephen Ott said. “Our boys are defending regular season EPC champions. We expect them to be in contention again this year. Emmaus and Easton will have strong teams as always.”

In addition to some new athletes, the Parkland program will have a new fully automated timing system at home meets.

“With the support of our athletic director Bill Dreisbach and the entire administration of our district, our program is moving forward in the right direction,” the coach said. “This timing system is used at all major track and field meets like invitationals, leagues, districts and states. It will raise the bar for our sport. Hopefully soon all schools in the EPC will use them. Currently six of the 18 schools have them. It is accurate and fair with times and places in meets. We also use laser measurements in our throwing events, which was graciously donated by the Parkland Education Foundation two years ago.”

The Trojans have plenty of talent for the timing and laser measurement systems to document.

Distance runners Brady Hoffman, Paul Abeln, Tyler Rothrock, Ethan Willard, Sam Tomko, Jake Barnes and Praveen Sureshkumar are back this spring. Sprinters Dylan Simon, Trey Tremba and Nakhi Bullock are almost as quick as the speed of sound. Hurdlers Andrew Beers, Kash Kern and Jake Madeira are the top returning hurdlers.

Throwers Julius Reyes and Nate Kemmerer return, and jumpers Connor Johns, Jack Harrison and Josh Pulver should also contribute.