ESCANABA — The Escanaba girls are working with lower than usual numbers this spring.

Esky has just 19 on its track and field team, the lowest under Dan DeLong who has coached the Eskymos for more than two decades.

“This is a tough sport and it’s tough to get the kids to come out,” he said. “You’ve got to work for everything. Nobody’s going to give it to you.”

The Eskymos have seven seniors, including pole vaulter Sophia Wagner who helped them win pole vault in Tuesday’s Queen City Relays at Marquette.

“Sophia is a great athlete and an even greater kid,” DeLong said. “She’s the real deal. She works hard for everything.”

Esky, which ran in Friday’s Manistique Kiwanis Invitational, resumes in Tuesday’s Marquette Invite.

Wagner will also be helping out with sprints.

Additional seniors are pole vaulter Valerie Royer, twins Adrianna and Ava Getzloff in the weight events, Natalie Spreitzer (distances), Mara Liss (hurdles), Andrea Cerma, an exchange student from Italy, and Annabelle Neumeier who’s nursing a knee injury.

“The field events are definitely our strength,” DeLong said. “The Getzloff twins are real good in the weight events. We’re top heavy with juniors and seniors. Depth is a concern. The girls know they’re going to have to run in three or four events. We had a good first three weeks of practice with the snow not being on the track. We also got to see some good competition in Marquette. It was nice to get that in.”

The Eskymos are running without their top distance runner, junior Alisha Mabie who’s expected to be out for two weeks due to a stress fracture.

“Grace Hamlin (junior) is our top distance runner for now,” DeLong said. “Natalie and Sophia (Weaver) are also helping us in the distances and Mara and Ava (Stalboerger) will be helping us in the hurdles.”

Hamlin and Marieta De Alaminos, an exchange student from Spain is also listed among the juniors.

Other juniors include sprinters Maggie Martin and Molly Smale and Sonya Maki.

“Maggie is our fastest sprinter,” DeLong said. “We’re glad to have the exchange students out for track. That gives us a couple more kids.”

Additional underclassmen are sophomores Irene Neumeier (sprints) and Anne Heath and freshman Sophie Hill.

DeLong believes Negaunee is the team to beat in the Upper Peninsula this season.

“They had a young team and nearly won it (U.P. title) last year,” he said. “Marquette is always there and Houghton is strong in the distances. Sault will be solid and I think Gladstone will have a real solid team. Westwood has some good athletes and Manistique always has good middle distance runners and they have Danielle Lund in the weight events.”

Ryan Wender is the team’s new assistant coach, taking over for longtime assistant Kathy Cibula who has retired from coaching.

Also sharing the coaching duties are assistants Dan Flynn (weight events), Joe Royer (pole vault), Courtney Boyle (hurdles) and Stephanie (Ostrenga) Sprague (sprints).

The remaining schedule:

April 25 — Delta County Invitational at Bark River-Harris; April 30 — Kingsford and Menominee.

May 3 — Esky Invitational; May 7 — Manistique Emerald Invitational; May 10 — Negaunee Lions Invitational; May 15 — Division 1 regional at Gladstone; May 23 — Great Northern Conference at Menominee.

June 1 — U.P. Finals at Kingsford.