Pacific University first-year track and field coach Matt Lydum has a number of goals for his team-some of them are immediate, most of them are not.

Lydum, who came on board last August as the Boxers' cross country/track and field leader, specializes in building athletes for the long haul. "My plan is to develop the whole athlete," Lydum said last fall. His background includes working with USA Track and Field programs as a youth clinician and development leader. "You won't see complete results right away because this is a long-term plan for our student-athletes. But you will see improvement in the short-term as well."

One of Lydum's short term goals has already been realized. Team roster numbers are up, albeit not where he wants them yet, but they have increased. The men have 31, compared to 21 from a year ago. The women have 27 and they only had 16 last year.

"One of our goals is to get our student-athletes through an entire year of training without injury," the former head coach at San Francisco State and Definace (Ohio) said. "We have established systems, patterns and operating procedures. We are moving in that direction. The team culture, positive attitude and training smarter over months and years will get us to long-term sustainability and championship level programs."

Lydum's teams are already under way, having competed the first two Saturdays of March. "I like what I see already," he said. "One of our goals of course is to be competitive in a very good Northwest Conference. We really are not that far off. We have a great facility and really smart kids who have bought in to what we are trying to do."

Here is a look at those teams, starting with the Boxer men.

Pacific Men
While roster numbers are up from a year ago, many of the key cogs from the 2015 men's team are gone, including NWC Field Athlete of the Year, Budweiser Hawkins. All the senior did was win the long jump, triple jump and high jump at last spring's conference championships.

"We will have a very young, but hard working men's team," Lydum summarized. Of the 31 student-athletes on the roster, 20 of them are freshmen.

Sprinter Conner Pappas is the one true senior on the team, while distance runner Steve Allen is also listed as a senior academically but is a sophomore athletically. Allen earned Second Team All-NWC honors last fall in cross country and also earned All-West Region honors.

Sean Higinbotham is a junior with plenty of track and field success on his resume already. He ran 50.34 last year in the 400 meters, the ninth fastest time in school history.

"Our few upperclassmen are providing great leadership and competing well," Lydum stated. "They are a very important part of what we are trying to do here."

A former hammer thrower himself, Lydum is optimistic about his young throwers. Jason Draper and Chase Patterson have shown early potential. "They have the adjustment of moving from the high school elements to the heavier pieces to throw in college," he said. "They have the potential to be quite good."

Freshman sprinter Garrett Price has already run 11.24 in the 100 meters this season and 22.89 in the 200. Another rookie James Wilcuts has a solid future in the jumps, and multi-sport athletes Jacob Richards (wrestling/throws) and Nate Olowo (basketball/jumps) will be competitive at the NWC level.

"With this young group we want to focus on development and work towards peaking at the Northwest Conference Championships," Lydum stated. "We want to have our best performances there, let the points stack up and see what happens."

Boxer Women
The Pacific women's roster is smaller than the men's, but has more experience with a number of talented returnees

"We are thin in numbers, but we have talent across the board," Lydum said. "The key is to be healthy at the end of the year. A lot of women's team are injured and beat up at the end of the season. Our goal is not to be over trained, but to be stronger."

Lydum has a solid batch of athletes who made an impact as freshmen a year ago.

Sprinters Mikaela Bernards and Marlee Chovich fall into that category. Both ran 12.82 in the 100 meters last spring, the second fastest times in school history. Bernards, out of nearby Valley Catholic High School, also clocked 26.53 in the 200, the third best time on Pacific's career list. For good measure, she added a second-place finish in the 100 hurdles at the conference meet to her resume (15.94).

Marissa Smith is a talented true freshman who had a great indoor season and will join Bernards and Chovich in the sprints. Already in 2016, Smith anchored the 4 x 400 relay team that ran the second fasted time in Boxer history (4:05.28). Freshmen Megan Eberhardt, Breezy Brookbank (soccer), and Jess Knoll were the first three legs of the relay. Senior sprinter Dawne Yamamoto returns after posting a 13.11 time in the 100 meters last year.

In addition to Bernards in the hurdles category, junior Kelsey Lee has already posted the third fastest time in school history in the 400 hurdles (1:04.58).

"Kelsey's fitness is great already and her technique is improving daily," Lydum confirmed.

In the middle to long distances, Knoll and Stephenie Spencer will contend for top finishes at the conference level. Spencer, a sophomore, had a stellar cross country season, finishing sixth at the NWC meet and eighth at the west region championships. Knoll has already run 2:22.71 in the indoor 800 meters, while Spencer opened her outdoor season with a 38:33.34 in the 10,000 meters, fourth best in Boxer record books.

Shannon Hammond adds talent to a number of events for the Boxers. Hammond finished fourth in the heptathlon at the NWC Championships last spring (3,596) and set the school record in the high jump as a freshman (5-3 ). The Forest Grove native also went 36-7 in the triple jump.

In the throws, Emily Sproul returns with the distinction of being the only Boxer to qualify for the NCAA Division III National Championships last year.

Sproul had a season-best of 136-9 last spring in the javelin, while teammate Mackenzie Huddleston was right behind her at 135-9. Senior Katie Rock provides experience in the throws, flinging the discus 116-6 while Dianna Church pushed the shot put 38-2 last year as a freshman.

A newcomer to the Boxer track team but not to Pacific athletics is Sarah Curl. Curl was a First Team All-NWC selection and Third Team All-West Region in basketball. She will compete in the high jump and javelin. "She is a talented athlete that picks things up quickly," Lydum evaluated. "When she gets her track legs under her, look out."

Even with all this talent, Lydum still knows that the key to success lies in his system and long-term results.

"These student-athletes are still developing physically as they enter college," he explained. "We work hard on their posture and their core strength. We do a fair share of explosive training and plyometrics. We want to develop the whole body, to keep people healthy and training.

"If you can do that week after week, improvement is inevitable."