The theme for the 2026 Norwalk girls track and field team will be a “season of growth” and improvement. Warrior head coach Charity Campbell enters Tuesday’s outdoor season opener at Simpson College with a roster of 65 athletes – the majority being sophomores and freshmen. Five seniors, along with a small junior class, will provide leadership.

Coach Campbell tells KNIA Sports that the Warrior girls will be striving to get one percent better every day and peak as a team at the end of the season. The job of the coaching staff, Campbell adds, is to identify strengths and put together the best possible lineup.

“We talk about work ethic and that we all want to get one percent better and that we need to worry about ourselves,” Campbell said. “We need to see what we have, where we can put people together, and then work to improve every meet we go out and see what we can do to make us the strongest team (possible). We definitely preach “believe in the process” and get that one percent better every day and good things will happen in the end, so we’re looking for that to happen at the end of this season.”

Norwalk returns one individual state qualifier from last season in sophomore jumper Elle Hatlevig. As a freshman, Hatlevig cleared five feet, four inches to place fifth in the Class 4A high jump, and she also qualified for state in the long jump. Campbell says that Hatlevig has been looking good in preseason practices as she leads a group of six jumpers and 10 throwers in the Warrior field events.

Norwalk also returns three members from last year’s state meet shuttle hurdle relay in seniors Ava Carlson and Kaia Stoulil and junior Leah Crick, along with state alternate Kinsley Stumbaugh. In addition to the hurdles, another Warrior strength will be the middle distance and distance events. Top runners include senior Grace DeRocher, sophomores Olive DeRocher and Grace Wetzeler and freshman Hannah Schmitz.

Campbell says that practices have been going well as the Warriors prepare for Tuesday’s Simpson High School Classic and Thursday’s JV meet at Urbandale. Norwalk will also defend last year’s team title at the Warren County Relays on Monday. The Warriors’ long-term goals include a top-three finish in the Little Hawkeye Conference Meet and qualifying as many girls as possible for the 4A State Meet.