Redmond track coach Tim Conley has a luxury he hasn’t seen in nine years — two returning state champions.

Alani Troutman won gold in the long jump at the 2015 Class 5A track meet, while Jacoby McNamara came in first in the 200-meter dash. Both are seniors and part of a group of Redmond boys who want to again compete for state titles.

Conley, who starts his third season as head coach of the Panthers on March 16, said having athletes who have already won gold will be a crucial influence for his team.

“It’s extremely important,” he said. “It inspires the rest of the team to want to accomplish the same thing. It puts pressure on the other teams, because they know everybody is returning.”

McNamara has the number memorized, 21.13 seconds. That’s the state 200 record set in 2007 by Salem McKay’s Ryan Bailey, a 2012 Olympian. It is nearly a second below the 22.1 seconds McNamara ran in the state final last year, but he feels he can break the record.

“It’s a big leap, but that’s my main goal,” he said. “Compared to last year, I feel like I’m running two times as hard. My goal is not to really beat people — it’s to improve myself on how fast I am. Setting a high goal will help.”

Troutman also has high goals for the season, as well as long ones. He wants to add a foot onto his long jump, which was 21 feet, 7½ inches in the state final at Eugene’s Hayward Field last year. He also finished fifth in the high jump, where he leaped 6 feet, 1 inch.

Troutman will try to make it to state in the triple jump as well, he said.

“The biggest thing is not to give up but to keep working harder,” he said. “Just have confidence in yourself.”

McNamara and Troutman also were members of the 4×100 relay team that finished second at state last year. All four members of that team are back, including senior Donnie Pate and sophomore Colton Mortenson.

Pate worked on weight training and running throughout the winter to help prepare for the new season.

“It wasn’t really fun, but I was just thinking of the upcoming track season,” said Pate, who expects to run individually in the 100 and 200.

Senior Gabe Brauchler would like to make state in throwing events. He knows he has a tough crosstown competitor in Ridgeview’s Brent Yeakey, who finished second at state last year.

Brauchler hopes to go toe-to-toe with the Ridgeview thrower.

“You’ve just got to stick with it — it comes with experience,” Brauchler said. “It takes thousands and thousands of throws until you get it.”

Redmond, which starts its season March 16 at the Mountain View Icebreaker in Bend, started the season with around 50 track athletes, both boys and girls. Conley hopes to grow the number to between 60 and 70.

Mortenson looks forward to the relay-heavy first meet, which will include conference rivals Mountain View and Bend.

“It’s only an icebreaker, so it does kind of calm the nerves,” he said. “It will be good to do well and see what the competition is.”

Conley hopes the boys team will be strong enough to get in the top four at state, which would require an improvement over ninth last year.

“Their goal is to get a trophy this year,” he said. “The kids are going to be even more prepared for what happens this year.”

Conley expects to see better results from the girls team, which finished last in the five-team Intermountain Conference Championships in 2015.

“They had a super-strong cross-country season; I see them transferring that,” he said. “We have a super-tough district, but we’re really going to make a lot more noise this year.”

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com