Shannon Collins said she can’t wait to get onto the Point Loma High School (PLHS) track every afternoon. The head girls’ track coach at PLHS said she is excited about a group of young Lady Pointers who have a bright future on the rust-colored oval and green turf of Bennie Edens Field. “I’m so excited to see our athletes working hard and improving each week,” Collins said. “They have tremendous potential.” Collins has four assistants on her coaching staff. Howard Harrison works with the sprinters, Rob Barnett handles long-distance runners and Mike Estanol and Fred Ludwig handle the field events. Collins points to junior Riley Hasche as the team’s top athlete. In an April 8 meet against San Diego High, Hasche took first place in three field events — pole vault (7-0), high jump (5-2) and long jump (15-9) — and her points proved critical as the Lady Pointers edged the Lady Cavers 70-61. On the track, junior Nikki Smith is involved in almost all running events. She has a best time of 27.81 seconds in the 200-meter dash and also runs the 400, 4×100 relay and 4×400 relay, which took first place against the Cavers with a time of 4 minutes, 21.4 seconds. “Nikki has great leadership skills and is our team captain,” Collins said. McKenna Doyle, also a junior, is another standout. She placed second against San Diego High in the high jump and long jump. Another gifted junior, Meghan Breadmore, is currently recovering from a leg injury. As for the underclassmen, sophomores Samantha Rutherford and Laurel Haas are talented distance runners, competing in the 800, 1600 and 3200. And Collins can’t help but break into a grin when she talks about her freshman group. “We’ve got a great group of freshmen girls who have a tremendous future ahead of them,” Collins said. Jewell Roth and Ella Verhees are among this group. Against San Diego High, they racked up first- and second-place finishes with identical times in both the 800 (2:44) and the 1600 (5:59) then each ran a leg in the winning 4×400 relay. And there’s Chloe Cabiness, who has times of 13.2 in the 100 and 28.2 in the 200. She also anchors the 4×400 team. Cabiness’ sprinting partner, Iman Benraoui, is running neck-and-neck with times of 13.3 and 28.4. The freshmen Lady Pointers also offer talent in field events. Saya Saiga won the triple jump in the Cavers meet with a distance of 27-1 and Jade Martz’s high jump (4-8) and the long jump (14-0) complement her speed in the 100 and 4x100M. For the Lady Pointers, there are several upcoming opportunities to show off their skills. They will participate in two events this week — the Mustang Relays at Otay Ranch High on Saturday, April 24 and their final dual meet of the season on Thursday, April 29 at Mira Mesa High.