Both Warrenton track teams believe they can leave Friday’s Gateway Athletic Conference North meet as champions.

“I just asked them if we have it in us to compete for a conference championship,” Boys Head Coach Steven McDowell said, “and they said they do.”

The boys team is coming off a sixth-place finish in the Warrenton Invitational, where it beat out conference rivals Orchard Farm and Winfield.

“The last few years, we’ve finished second to St. Charles, so it’s always a battle between us and them,” McDowell said. “(St. Charles) West has gotten better this year, too. Those will be our biggest competitors.”

McDowell planned a pair of tough practices early this week before going easier Wednesday and Thursday.

He wanted to make a few late-season tweaks, as well.

Senior Braydan Chmiel prepared for a different workout during the week in an effort to kickstart his high jump performance.

Chmiel tied a personal record with a jump of 5-feet-11 earlier this season, but has been stuck around 5-8 lately.

“We’re going to change his workouts up this week, and hopefully that will make a difference,” McDowell said. “He normally does more sprint workouts, but we’re going to do more plyometric work this week.”

McDowell hopes that the plyometrics, which focus on jumping more than running, will give Chmiel a boost heading into the postseason.

When girls Head Coach Steve Wurtzel hasn’t been tinkering with his lineups lately, he’s been thinking about tinkering with his lineups.

“We’ve been moving a lot of girls around lately as we prepare for the conference meet,” he said. 

Wurtzel’s biggest point of emphasis has been his relay  teams.

The 400 relay team of Dajah Ray, Rylie Cox, Emma Housewright and Lalita Andrews has been consistent all season, but Wurtzel is debating whether to move Courtney Richardson into Cox’s spot.

Richardson replaced Ray in Friday’s Warrenton Invitational and the team finished fourth in 54.15 seconds.

“We’ll probably run Richardson instead of Cox because the 4X1 and the 400 are back to back,” Wurtzel said. “Cox has a good chance to take first in the 400 if she wants, so you’ve got a lot of possibilities there. You might sacrifice a second in a relay to gain 10 points, so that’s how we’re trying to look at this.”

The 800 relay team has been more influx this spring.

The quartet of Cox, Andrews, Corizma Blair and Allison Tonioli finished fourth Friday in 1:55.72.

“Our 4X1 and 4X2 teams got fifth last year in districts, and it’s the same group of girls this year,” Wurtzel said. “They missed it by hundredths of a second, so it’s all about making that happen this time around. It’s the little things, like running all the way through a race and getting a perfect handoff. You’ve got to be able to get grooving right away.”

Cox, who also runs the 400 and 1,600 relay, might be relegated to one of the two races Friday because of her already-big workload.

“We can double up in the 400 with Cox and (Andrea) Poole,” Wurtzel said. “But we’d probably take Cox out of the 4X4.”

With a light field for 3,200 relay Friday, Wurtzel was trying to find four runners to help the team out in a pinch.

“There are only four teams that have a 4X8 team,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of distance runners, but we have a lot of younger kids that don’t have a chance to run as much, so it’s about finding someone to go help the team. It’s guaranteed points if we can get a team in that race.”

Wurtzel said he would continue to work the lineups heading into Friday’s conference meet, and he will continue to try and find the best lineups as his team prepares for the district meet May 13 at Westminster.

“We may not have a lot of girls, but they’re talented at what they do and that’s been able to help us,” he said. “They just have to go out, do their job and work hard.”