Holmen High School's boys track and field team looked to be entering the 2008 season making a move up in the Mississippi Valley Conference meet. The question was how far.

Injuries to several of their top performers have put a hamper on Holmen moving too far up the league leader at Tuesday's conference meet at Logan. But the Vikings should have several individuals that could fare well.

Eric Gunderson is the defening champion in the 300-meter hurdles. He also was second among underclassmen at last year's Division 1 state meet.

“Eric should have a great opportunity to win the 300 hurdles,” HHS head coach Steve King said. “We're also hoping to sneak a relay through, but Eric's our best bet to win an event individually. Jesse Tiedt, if healthy, would have a shot in the triple jump, but there are still two or three that are better than him in the conference.”

Holmen's best relay shot may be in the 4X800, where Mike Borden, Mike Behringer, Nick Kannel and Gunderson teamed for a time of 8 minutes, 17.9 seconds at the April 29 Tomah triangular. With a .24 of a second adjustment to the hand-held time, the mark was the 10th-best in the state thus far this season entering the week.

The mark was also good for a program senior class record by about six seconds. Borden, Behringer, Kannel and Gunderson had first intended to take a shot at the mark at the April 25 MVC/Big Rivers meet, but it was rained out and cancelled.

Individually, Kannel looks to be among the top competitors in the 400. His top competition should come from Logan's Jake Whitewater.

Borden appears to be in a similar spot in the mile. Top competition should come from Zach Wilhelmy of Aquinas and Tomah's Derek Storkel.

Despite being less than 100 percent, Tiedt could be in the mix in the triple jump. Top competition should come from Whitewater and Central's Drew Sierzant.

“If we were healthy, we would be going for the top three of four for sure,” King said. “But (distance runner) Kyle Patzner has been out all year and Jesse is still nursing a hamstring; he's still babying it along. We're hoping he can mentally and physically be ready to have one of his best days of the season.”

The group of injuries doesn't include Zac Hanson in the hurdles. The senior broke his hand on the same track at Tuesday's meet April 15.

“Our better athletes are in some of the tighter events,” King said. “It's a harder year than most to gauge where you're going to be in the team chase when nobody has had very many meets because of the weather. We've only had one tune-up in the last three weeks.”

Other expected top performres from other schools in the meet include Central's Brandon Zink and Mitch Wilson in the mid-distance events, and Adam Poellinger of Aquinas and Logan's Mitch Weber in the throws.

Tuesday's Dick Fredrickson Invitational at Arcadia and Friday's Hanson Relays at Central both were rained out and will not be made-up.