As the winter sports seasons begins to fade at Riverbank High School, the Bruin boys and girls track and field teams took their first practices on the new all-weather track on campus.

Construction work began as soon as the season was completed last spring, with crews working through the summer to get the work done. When football season started, care was taken to keep football players and others from walking on the track surface to get to the football field.

The new track features more lanes, nine, and the same artificial surface as the track for the runways and pits for triple jump, long jump, high jump and pole vault, resulting in much less grass on the ground.

On Monday, Feb. 1, the first practice, laps and stretching, limbering exercises were the order of the day. Coach Monte Wood led the runners in their first laps, then instructed them in warm up exercises.

After a while, the distance runners broke off from the sprint and field athletes, taking to city streets for some long laps. The others undertook more track laps before splitting up into their individual event practice.

Also last week, the Bruin baseball teams held their first day of tryouts on Wednesday, Feb. 3.