MINERAL COUNTY - As athletes across the state prepare to throw javelins, shot puts and the discus in addition to training themselves to push their bodies further and faster than they ever imagined, the Superior Bobcats Track and Field team is preparing to host the first meet of the season.

Head coach Jaime Toivonen said the team is healthy, for the most part, and the 18 athletes she has are anxious to take on their cross-county rivals from St. Regis and Alberton.

“They have been working hard,” Toivonen said. “We have a lot of younger kids. There are two or three freshmen that are really going to help us out.”

Toivonen said she was expecting the team to be strong on distance, sprint, jumping and throwing events this season. She said the meet this Thursday starting at 2 p.m. at the Superior High School track would feature the traditional Minerla County rivals.

“It’s going to be a small meet,” Toivonen said. “It will be nice to get our feet wet before spring break. We don’t have a meet again until after we get back. It will be exciting to see what the kids do. It will be nice to see where they are at and how much they have improved.”

Toivonen said the meet this Thursday would start in the middle and work its way out.

“We will start with field events,” Toivonen said. ‘Then we will do some running events.”

Toivonen said the team would be working on a variety of things leading up to the meet this Thursday.

“We will change it up quite a bit,” Toivonen said. “We like to switch it up everyday. Each one of us picks specific events. We will go hard Monday and Tuesday. We like them to get some practice on a lot of events.”

The first meet of the season starts this Thursday at the Superior High School beginning at 2 p.m.