The long awaited return of  the outdoor season opener has arrived for the ADM boys track team as the Tigers hit the rubber today in Winterset for the Husky Invitational.

Last season head coach Mike Whisner saw his team take a 7th place finish in the Husky Invite on the heels of some very solid performances. The great news for the Tigers this season is they bring back all seven of their top points earners from last year’s edition. Senior Reece McLaughlin seeks to lead the Tigers just as he did last year as ADM’s points leader in Winterset earning top 6 performances in the 100 meters and the long jump while walking away with a second place finish in the 400 meter dash.

Coach Whisner also brings back his state qualifier from last year in Jacob West who already has a pair of top ten finishes this year and enters today as the Husky Invitational reigning high jump champion.

ADM also looks to be strong in the relay events returning a full compliment of runners from both the 4 x 100 and the 4 x 200 which placed 4th and 3rd in their respective events last season.

Certainly a lot of talent and success returning for coach Whisner to start ADM’s outdoor campaign, and he spoke with Raccoon Valley Radio to break down some of the biggest strengths for his team.

“It appears that we’re going to be strong in the high jump and long jump. The throws I think we’ll be pretty strong in and we’ll see how that improves in the shot (put) and discuss. We’ll be strong in the hurdles; something we’ve worked hard at is being good hurdlers so we’ll see how far that takes us but I think we’ll be even better than we were last year,” explained coach Whisner.

On the flip side of that coach Whisner talked about the area of his team that he’s looking for the most improvement from due to youth and lack of depth.

“The place where we’re the youngest is the distance races, 800 on up and that depth wise makes it tough on us but we’ve got some young guys who are going to get some opportunities this year and improve,” stated coach Whisner.

The Tiger boys track team will converge in Winterset for their first meet of the outdoor season today, kicking off at 4:30 pm.