The Viking hurdle team is under the supervision of a new coach this year. Former Olympian LaVonna Martin-Floreal, who won a silver medal in the 100-meter hurdles at the the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games, will be coaching both the girls’ and boys’ teams this year. The team is still in the process of determining who will be running the shorter or longer hurdle events, according to Martin-Floreal.

“There are a lot of kids who have never hurdled before, and a few who have, and the goal is to get them out here and get them to love it like I love it,” Martin-Floreal said.

The Vikings will retain several key members of its overall track and field team and has gained several promising athletes.

Despite losing star athletes such as Emily Yeates to graduation, the Vikings have high hopes for the season. Yeates was a key point winner in sprints, jumps and hurdles and now competes at UCSD.

The Vikings are hope that their sprint teams will continue to win many points in the upcoming dual meets.

“I think the girls’ team is looking really well off right now because we have a new senior, Helen Butler and more [runners] coming from basketball who I hear are very fast,” junior sprinter Lydia Guo said. “The 4×100 is looking pretty well rounded and our sprinting is looking good.”

On the distance front, the team has many returning runners from the cross-country season.

“I believe that every girl that’s out for the distance group right now – unless we get more from sprints or girls’ basketball – was running cross country,” distance coach Paul Jones said.

The cross-country team placed third in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this year and will face the two teams that placed above it in dual meets during the track season. Jones is confident that the team will score well, but cautioned that it will face stiff competition from its rivals.

“We still have Mountain View [High School] and Gunn [High School], who are both state meet qualifiers for cross-country, and they will be pretty solid, but beyond that we should score well,” Jones said.

The first dual meet of the season will be against Los Altos High School at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday on the Paly track.

“It’s going to be a pretty tough race because Los Altos has put up pretty good competition over the last few years,” Guo said.