NATCHEZ — Natchez High School track and field coach Larry Wesley is all business, and the long-tenured coach has a good reason.

Wesley and the Bulldog track and field team head to Jackson today for the Jackson Public Schools Invitational, the next step to defending a South State title for both the girls and boys squad.

“I can’t predict the season this early,” Wesley said. “We’ve only had one meet, but we did win that meet.”

The Natchez boys team won its first meet of the season while the girls finished third. Inclement weather forced the Bulldogs’ other two meets to be canceled.

With more thunderstorms in the forecast today, Wesley has an eye on the weather but said he expects the meet to still go on.

“(Today) they’re not going to cancel, but it might start a little late,” he said.

Wesley said the strength of his team this season is his jumpers. He returns a handful of seniors from last year’s South State squad. Two of those returning athletes on the boys side are seniors Ramonte Jackson and Freddie Singleton.

Wesley said Jackson and Singleton are ahead of the curve this season, and are all ready logging mid-season scores on long jumps.

“(Singleton) is already jumping (22 feet, 9.5 inches), usually they don’t jump 22s until three or four meets down the road,” Wesley said. “If I’m going to win this year, I’m going to win off of my jumpers.”

Singleton said the boys team has depth this season, He said the depth allows athletes to specialize in the particular events they excel at. In Singleton and Jackson’s case that is the high jump and long jump.

“For the past years we’ve had sprinters,” Singleton said. “I’m also sprinter, but I’m really a jumper.”

That’s not to say that the two seniors won’t be competing in their fair share of sprinting events today. Singleton is slated to run in the 4×100 relay and the 200-meter dash, while Jackson is slotted for the 100-meter hurdles.

Sprinting may not be his specialty, but Singleton remains confident in his versatility as an athlete.

“I’m not really a sprinter, but I am a sprinter, if you know what I mean,” Singleton said.

The depth of the boys squad comes from the ties the athletes have had on the track for years. Singleton and Jackson, who have run track together since before seventh grade, were recently reunited. Jackson hasn’t competed since ninth grade when he transferred to Vidalia High School.

“This is my comeback year,” he said. “At Vidalia High School there was no track team. Everyone thought I was gone, now I’m back.”

Jackson has still been working out and improving his running and jumping techniques, and the two athletes help hone each other’s skills.

“(Jackson’s) been working,” Singleton said. “And, new things I’ve learned, I’ve taught him as well.”

Senior athlete Shamarra Grover is slated to run the 100- and 300-meter hurdles for the Natchez girls at the JPS Invitational. She took reps at long jump Wednesday afternoon, which she has only been working on for two years.

Grover said the long jump is primarily about technique and balance when landing in the pit.

“You have to land on both feet and falling back marks wherever your hand is … Or anything,” Grover said.

Grover’s assessment of the girls’ squad in the season’s first meet was a great start, but she feels like the Bulldogs have turned a corner over the past few practices.

“It was a great first meet to get a feel for everything and right now, I think we’re ready to dominate everything.” Grover said.