Now in the final few days of its fifth summer season, the McMinnville Track Club has experienced tremendous growth. In its first season, the team was all of five members. In this year’s team photo there were 53. Last year there were five coaches volunteering their time. This year, the club had 16.

The impact of the increased participation is clear. Thirty of the club’s athletes qualified for the regional meet and, from that group, 14 qualified for the upcoming USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, scheduled to start July 28 in Greensboro, N.C.

Because of the expense involved in making such a long trip — the championships rotate regions yearly, heading east — only four will actually compete, however. That doesn’t take away a thing, however, from what the club was able to accomplish.

“The kids that came out here this summer all were really motivated and all really want to be involved in track,” coach Corey Medeiros said. “If you look around out here, really, there should only be four kids practicing today. But there are probably 15 of them out here right now. That’s pretty neat.

“And then we’ve had so many coaches commit to coming out here during their time off in the summer. They all can’t be out here every day, but there are so many that every practice we have someone here that’s able to help these athletes train.”

Medeiros, the man who created the club, said it is the addition of so many area coaches that has made the difference. The list of volunteers is lengthy, and includes coaches from Yamhill-Carlton, Amity, Sheridan, Dayton and McMinnville. Even Linfield’s Josh Lovell was at the track Wednesday, sharing some of the tips and techniques that helped him to this year’s NCAA Division III decathlon championship.

“To qualify so many kids from little McMinnville was awesome,” he said. “Nobody really noticed our club before. They knew it was here, I guess, but at one of our meets we had people coming up asking, ‘Where did you come from? It seems like you guys are everywhere!’ People were very impressed, and I think the key to that is the quality volunteer coaches coming our here helping these kids get better.”

Representing McMinnville at nationals will be Tim Anderson (high jump), Malanie Lamprecht (shot put), Emily Kersting (javelin) and Marta Burchett (100 and 100-meter hurdles).

Anderson, 14, will be a sophomore at Mac High next season. He no-heighted at last year’s national championships, contested in rainy, all-around miserable conditions, but again enters this year’s event as one of the favorites after nearly breaking the regional meet’s record of 6 feet, 1⁄2 inch.

“Tim’s PR is nearly 6-1, so I expect he’ll be ranked in the top three at the least and he has an excellent chance to win it,” Medeiros said.

Lamprecht will be in sixth grade in the fall and is just now learning proper technique for her event.

“She threw 32-5 and the second-place finisher was about 30,” Medeiros said. “So I expect her to do really well and finish at least in the top eight.”

Kersting will be competing in her final high school meet before heading off to compete at Sacramento State next year, and Medeiros expects her to finish just as well.

“Top eight at least,” he said. “She hurt her foot a little bit in practice so we’re kind of nursing that right now, but it’s not anything too bad and she’s very confident she’ll be ready.”

The final representative is Burchett, who actually lives in Newberg but makes the commute to practice and compete for Mac.

“The amazing thing with her is that she’s never even done hurdles before,” Medeiros said. “And now she’s qualified for nationals. It’s just her pure natural talent and ability. I’m sad she’s not gonna be running for McMinnville High School, but as a coach it’s great to see her succeed. She’s definitely gonna be a power house for Newberg.”

Other team members earning qualifying marks were Abby Lawson (400-meter relay); Alyssa Hasslen (discus, shot); Annika Nyquist (400-meter relay); Ashante Horsley (100); Carissa Collins (400-meter relay), Claire Lawson (400-meter hurdles); Kane Kennedy (400); Leslie Ramirez (400-meter relay); Montanna Gubrus (400-meter relay, 80-meter hurdles); and Nora Angus (400-meter relay). Burchett and Lamprecht also qualified in the sprint relay, but a full team is not able to attend.

Hasslen, who finished her stellar Mac High career with a pair of state-meet golds this season in Eugene, elected to forgo the national meet and will instead focus on getting herself prepared and in shape to start her collegiate career at Arizona. She will, however, be competing Saturday, July 25 in the World Championships Preview. Hosted at the Mac Wilkins Concordia Throw Center in Portland, the meet will feature 2008 Olympic discus gold medalist Stephanie Brown-Trafton, along with several other members of the U.S. team.

To help defray the costs of the trip for the four athletes that have committed to attending the national meet, the club will be holding a series of fundraisers.

One of those fundraisers is a spaghetti dinner, scheduled for 5-7 p.m. on Saturday, July 25 at the American Legion Post No. 21 at 126 Atlantic Ave. in McMinnville. The cost for the dinner is $8, paid at the door, and will include spaghetti, salad, bread, beverage and dessert.

A raffle will be held at the dinner as well. Items to be raffled include a bread gift basket from Harvest Fresh, a prime rib dinner for two, a hand-carved mirror and gourmet cheesecake. The tickets can be purchased at the event and the drawing will be held at 7 p.m.

The McMinnville Panda Express has also signed on to help the club, agreeing to donate 20 percent of sales Friday, July 24, for every customer that provides a coupon for the event. Contact Medeiros at corey.medeiros@ormutual.com for a coupon.

A car wash is also scheduled for Saturday, July 26 at Chuck Colvin Auto Center from 8 a.m. to noon.