Last spring, Franklin men's track and field finished fourth at the HCAC Outdoor Championships, the Grizzlies' best finish in more than a decade, with the women's team landing at the bottom of the team leaderboard in 10th.

Griz coach Brandon Dworak has high hopes that both teams, especially the women, will outpace those efforts at this weekend's conference meet.

"I don't anticipate us being 10th again," Dworak said of the women. "I anticipate us hopping up a good handful of spots there with what we have going on from an individual standpoint, so that'll be exciting to see."

Leading the charge on both sides are several podium hopefuls, led by freshman long jumper Grace Tincher, who already holds the HCAC indoor and outdoor records and earned All-America honors during indoor season. Tincher is a runaway favorite in the long jump with a seed mark of 5.78 meters, and she's also seeded third in the high jump and second in the 100-meter dash. Also entering the meet in podium position for the Griz women are senior Wynn Wellington (second in the 3,000 steeplechase) and freshmen Alaina Kellerman (third in the pole vault) and Alex Mast (third in the 400 meters). The Grizzlies' all-freshman 4x100 relay of Tincher, Kellerman, Cora Mink and Amani Byrd is also a No. 3 seed.

On the men's side, Franklin is the reigning HCAC champion in the 4x400 relay and the quartet of junior Steven Scott and freshmen Khalid Amadou, Austin Menefee and Blake Hughes is seeded first. Sophomore Brayden Wilkins has a chance to claim multiple events, heading in as the No. 1 seed in the 100 and 200 meters. Freshman Joe Johnson, who got the weekend scoring started for the Grizzlies with a seventh-place showing in the discus on Thursday afternoon, is the No. 1 seed in the javelin.

"If Joe throws like he did last weekend, where he's hovering around 60 meters, he's going to be tough to beat," Dworak said.

Scott will try to defend his conference title in the 400; he's seeded third, with teammate Amadou second. In distance events, sophomore Will Hirsch is seeded third in the 5,000-meter run and could be a factor in the 10,000 as well. Fellow soph Zachary Schroeder is the three seed in the steeplechase.

Despite the fact that so many of Franklin's top scoring hopefuls are freshmen, Dworak is confident that they'll be ready for the bigger stage.

"I think as the year's gone on, they've adapted," he said. "Indoor was their first actual conference championships; even though that went really well, there was still some experiences and learning curve that came with that. And I think them getting to a few more championship-style meets outdoors has kind of helped them build for this weekend. ... Most of them, they've been pretty consistent all season, so we're not really expecting a whole lot different results-wise.

"They're trained up, they're ready to go, mentally, they're in a good place."