The Salisbury track and field teams will once again have several key athletes to replace from last year’s team.

The Falcon boys team graduated several league and district medalists, including Hunter Bleam, Kyle Artis, Tyson Utesch and Chase Fenstermaker. The Salisbury’s girls team graduated a pair of top-10 district finishers in Sophia Ascani and Katherine Medina. Junior Brooke Bleam, another Salisbury league medalist in 2022, is now competing at Saucon Valley High School.

The Falcons have several athletes ready to fill their shoes this season.

For the boys team, district medalist Jacob Gibbons returns for his senior season after placing fifth in the 400 and third in 200 at last year’s District 11 Championships. Junior Jairo Suarez returns in the hurdle events, while classmate Ivan Cisneros is back as the boys team’s top sprinter. Senior Josiah Day returns at high jump.

“We graduated a lot of points on the boys side,” said head coach Victor DeOliveira. “It will be very difficult to replace that many points. We do have a very large number of new male participants and we are hoping that we have some potential there to score.

“Jacob Gibbons had a fantastic season last year and hopefully can continue to improve. Jairo Suarez was hampered by injury last season, but when healthy can be very competitive in the 100 hurdles. We only have three senior boys with previous experience. We need to mature quickly as a whole to be able to send our usual number of athletes to leagues and districts.”

The girls team will be led by junior Alex Miller (pole vault, hurdles) and sophomore Shyann Cortes (hurdles), along with freshman distance runner Emily Batten.

“Our numbers on the girls side are a tad low so right now we are only looking at a handful of girls,” said DeOliveira. “We are very young this year with no senior girls with previous experience. Freshman Emily Batten, who went to states in cross country, should do well for us.”

Salisbury’s girls team, which went 1-10 last season, is once again low on numbers and will have a tough time winning dual meets.

The boys team also had a difficult time competing in dual meets against mostly larger teams in the league and went 2-10 last season. However, the Falcons boys were fifth in team standings at the league meet, where depth is less of a factor.