Aberdeen Christian will look to cap off a banner athletic year with a solid track and field season this spring.

The school has already had a memorable school year with trips to the state tournament in volleyball, girls’ basketball and boys’ basketball. The Christian girls’ also finished third in team points at last fall’s state cross country meet.

The majority of the athletes out for track and field were members of one of those teams and are no strangers to success.

“We have kind of two sets of strengths on the girls’ side,” said first-year coach Sam Bjorkman. “We have a crop of really young fast girls on the sprint side and then we have another group of kind of that middle distance 800-meter type. Both are very good.”

The sprints will be led by senior Joy Rohrbach and eighth-grader Shawnteah La Croix, who finished among the top 10 in the 200-meter dash at the state meet last season.

La Croix was part of relay teams that set school records last season in the 400-meter and 800-meter. Freshman Katherine Kretchman and eighth-grader Ali Isakson also return from those squads this spring.

“Just to show how young they were, they dropped a second and a half at regions to qualify for state,” Bjorkman said, “so they’re very young, but it’s super fun just to see the potential they have.”

Rohrbach, a key member of both the volleyball and girls’ basketball squads, will be trying to make up for lost time in track and field.

“She’s excited about the season. This is going to be the first year in a few years that she’s really been able to compete,” Bjorkman said. “She had nagging injuries last year, Covid the year before that, and injury before that. She’s healthy and looking really fast.”

The middle distance group will be led by a trio of runners that all placed at last fall’s state cross country meet.

Rachel Beaner was 16th, Grace Steger 18th and Kathryn Steger 23rd at that meet. All three were part of the school-record setting 3,200-meter relay team a year ago. Beaner is the school record holder in the 800-meter run, while Kathryn Steger owns the school mark in the 1,600.

The boys’ team will be led by a group of sprinters and jumpers.

All of the members are back from three relay squads, including a pair that qualified for state last season. Abe Kretchman, Jackson Isakson, Andrew Brennan and Ben Rohl were part of the 400-meter relay team, while Kretchman, Brennan, Rohl and Walker Larson ran on the 800-meter squad.

“We definitely have good wheels on the boys’ side,” Bjorkman said. “Our 4X1, 4×2 were at state last year and return everybody from those groups.”

The 1,600-meter relay team returns all of its members as well with Rohl, Larson, Malek Wieker and Josh Schaunaman.

The Knights also figure to be strong in the field events with Isakson (the school record holder in the long jump) and Kretchman in the jumps, and Brennan in the pole vault.

In the past, the Lake Region Conference has featured some of the state’s premier track and field athletes so the Knights don’t have to travel far to see where they stack up.

“It’s fun to not have to travel to get to good competition. We’ll be seeing guys who can go 11.3 (seconds in the 100), 11.4, 11.5, fully automated, any day of the week and that’s just going to Groton or going to Ipswich, so that’s fun,” Bjorkman said. “That’s a lot of fun.”

Christian has yet to compete outdoors this season. They are scheduled to participate in the Patriot Invitational on Friday in Redfield.

While the season is just getting started, Bjorkman is already enjoying his experience as a head coach after serving as an assistant last season.

“I’m having a great time,” Bjorkman said. “It’s been even more fun than I expected, really.”