Cougars' toughest foe: Their health

 MOUNT VERNON -- Better now than later.The Cascade Cougars are defending state track champions. They're loaded for a repeat. And they're also a bit banged up.Sprinter Allison Gibbs hopes to join practice in mid-April; she suffered a broken leg during volleyball season. Distance ace Mariah Kauder is battling burcitis in both heels. "We're kind of off to a rough start," said junior Abbey Meyer, who -- incidentally -- is quite healthy. "We've got a lot of stuff going on, legs and backs and shins."Hopefully everyone will be ready when it counts."If they are, nobody is Class 2A is touching this team.Cascade ran away with the 2A championship last year, scoring an eye-popping 82 points. The Cougars won five events, including four relays.And only one key figure -- Abby Green -- graduated."Everything went our way last year," said Cougars Coach Tim Frake. "Right now, we're battling a lot of injuries."But we do have some additions. We'll be a more versatile, deeper team than we were last year."And that will make the relay-driven Cougars that much stronger.Meyer was on four winning relays last year (800 meters, 1,600 meters and both medleys)."I really like the relays," said the petite (she was listed as 5-foot-2 in basketball) yet powerful junior. "I don't care about running for myself too much."Gibbs, Tessa Helmle and Sydney Rickels also are regulars on the sprint relays.

 "The relays are more fun," Helmle said. "You get to warm up with your teammates. "We have a lot of girls that can run a 100, 200, 400 ... then we have the 400 and 800 girls ... they all can run a variety of things. They don't specifically have one event."The 2A state 1,500 champion (she was second in the 800 and 3,000), Kauder has signed to run at Drake next year.She said she had a good winter of workouts, then ... "I had my wisdom teeth out, then the burcitis cropped up."Kauder was wearing flip-flops at the recent Tri-Rivers Conference indoor meet because "I can't even get my shoes on right now. It's still early, but I have a lot of hard work in front of me."So some of the Cougars are behind. But, maybe not as much as you'd think."With the weather as bad as it's been, most other teams haven't gotten many outdoor workouts in, either," Frake said. "So this might not hurt us so much in the long run."I'd rather have this now than in May. With the veterans we have and the freshmen we have coming, we could be as good or better than last year. It could be a pretty special team."