The Fountain Hills High School track and field team was set to start its season last week until the first meet was rained out. Now the Falcons get to have a home crowd at their first official meet tomorrow, Thursday, March 9, at 3:30 p.m.

The Falcons will host six schools on their home track: Cicero Preparatory Academy, Crismon, Horizon Honors, Notre Dame Prep, Rancho Solano Prep and Tonopah Valley. The “Falcon Relays” will include 10 running events, four field events, and one senior night “final lap.”

“I think it’ll help a lot of the first-years get introduced into the nature of track, coming to a home meet instead of a 200-[team] meet,” junior Garren Keeler said.

Due to the rain last Wednesday, March 1, the Falcons had a second intrasquad competition to prepare for the season. Only the results from the first intrasquad competition were available by press time, and even though the Falcons have only competed against each other so far, there have been some standouts among the 45 athletes already.

Junior Keian Evans shattered swimming records last year, and his first attempt put him 10th all-time for Fountain Hills in shot put (34’2”). His younger brother, sophomore Avery Evans, came in second among the current Falcons at 30’.

Senior Gunnar Wise also earned a spot on the all-time leader boards. He is now tied for 19th in school history in long jump with 17’4”. According to senior Tyler Lawrence, the Falcons got a new jumping board for horizontal jumping events like long jump and triple jump this year.

This year’s track team is one of the biggest in recent years, and Keeler and Lawrence feel all their teammates will be up to speed and ready for their first competition. From transfer students new to the team like sophomore Sara Dethlefs or the Evans brothers, to first time runners like juniors Jeneya Boone and sophomore Tyler Griggs, there’s plenty of excitement for the season.

“Throughout all three years, this is definitely the biggest,” Keeler said. “We definitely have a lot more coaches than we’ve had the previous two years I’ve been doing it, so it seems like a more structured program this year.”

Second-year head coach Kevin Clancy held two home meets in 2022 for the first time in years, and both events were dual meets between two teams. Tomorrow’s home meet will be several times larger, and it will help prepare the team for races down the road.

Next week, on Friday, March 17, the Falcons travel to Tucson for the Mario Castro Invitational. They will compete against nine other teams before their biggest regular season meet, the 83rd Chandler Rotary T&F Classic on Friday and Saturday, March 24-25.

“That’s really, really big,” Lawrence said. “And now that we don’t race in our own division, everyone just races together, it’s going to be a really big thing. Probably some [Division I] athletes there.”

There will be over 50 teams at the Chandler Rotary classic, and the Falcons will see some of the same teams they host this week. Be there tomorrow to watch the track team kick off its season. Spectator entry fees for home meets are $5.