The Cathedral Catholic High School track and field team will go head to head against some of the strongest teams in the county in the upcoming 2017 season.

A new Western League was created by the city conference to include the powerhouse track and field teams in San Diego: CCHS, Mira Mesa High School, Morse High School, Point Loma High School, Scripps Ranch High School, and University City High School.

For the past nine years, CCHS women’s track and field has dominated meets, winning Western League Championships five years in a row and CIF Division 2 four years in a row. The men’s team has also done well for the past several years, winning league three years in a row and CIF Division 2 last year.

This new powerhouse league, however, will make those league wins harder to come by this season.

“I feel like being in a harder league will only motivate our team more to compete with more tenacity and live up to the upcoming challenges,” CCHS distance runner Michael Robinson ’17 said. “It will also prepare us more for CIF.”

In past years, the three San Diego leagues- Western, Eastern, and City- were organized largely by location, but the city conference made the decision last year to reorder the teams, placing the top six schools together in Western league.

This decision was made after the CCHS track team swept both league and CIF on both the boys and the girls side.

“It’s going to be much tougher now, obviously,” CCHS track and field head coach Dan Geiger said. “In the past, we knew going into the season who our main two rivals would be. This year, every meet is going to be a real competition.”

Another hurdle facing the CCHS track and field team is the usual crop of start-of-season injuries, ranging from fractured wrists to hamstring strains to ever-present shin splints.

“I am not entirely sure how likely it is that we’ll win every meet because we have a lot of injuries, but if our team is healthy, we can beat anyone!” Robinson said.

CCHS varsity sprinter Katelyn Butler ‘17, who tore her ACL in preseason, has plenty of faith in her teammates.

“We still have a good chance of winning, statistically speaking,” said Butler. “It sucks that I can’t compete my senior year, but I’ll enjoy seeing my teammates kick some butt.”

The team has already successfully won league meets against Scripps Ranch High School and Mira Mesa High School, and they will go head to head against Point Loma High School and University City High School today at 3 p.m. on UCHS turf.