Indoor track runners are  hoping for a first-place finish this year despite having a much younger team.

This year coach Stephen Hays said that the team’s strength will be in the distance runners. The sprinters could still have a good season, but they took a hit when last year’s best sprinter, Rio Chiba, moved away.

Captain Caroline Elmendorf said that the team’s losses last year will be minimized this year by skilled young runners.

“We graduated a lot of good seniors last year,” she said, “but we also have really talented underclassmen.”

Hays said that some of the runners he expects to do well this season are young players including sophomores Clare Severe and Lela Walter as well as seniors like Elmendorf.

“We have a lot of young runners and I’m excited to see what they can do,” Hays said.

Elmendorf said that she thinks that team is heading in the right direction, even with the setbacks that come with losing a strong senior class.

“We don’t have many experienced runners,” she said. “But we’re a really cohesive group, and I think everyone’s really motivated.”

The Vikes raced at an MCPS scrimmage Dec. 1. Elmendorf said the team took a hit because of missing runners, but that those who were there stepped up.

“A lot of people were missing because of the SAT,” she said. “But the people that were there performed really well, especially for the first meet of the season.”

The team had several runners earn personal best times, and Lela Walter and Julia Squeri had particularly good races.

The Vikes race again at MCPS Meet #1, Tuesday, Dec. 11.