MANKATO &045; We already knew the United South Central boys’ track and field team was the favorite to win the revamped Gopher Conference this spring.

Mankato East served notice it will again be a power in the Big Nine.

Perennial power USC opened its season finishing a distant second to East in a four-team indoor meet at Minnesota State-Mankato.

East won with 119 points. The Rebels had 39, Hutchinson 37, Shakopee 22.

All things considered, USC coach Kent Viesselman said it wasn’t a bad outing for his crew.

&uot;East is extremely deep, especially in three field events, sprints, and hurdles,” commented Viesselman. &uot;They were as good as anyone in the state in Class AA last year, and expect to be better this year. Hutchinson also has high expectations for the season. They’ve been a strong AA team off and on for several years. They expect this team to be their best in quite a while.”

The Rebels had three firsts. Shea Kaiser won the 55-meter dash, Bob Schmitz the 800, and Jon Voigt tied for first in the pole vault, clearing 12 feet.

Kaiser, Callan Pitcher, Jon Voigt and Schmitz combined for second in the 4×200 relay.

Other USC places: Steven Wood, third, 55 hurdles; Mike Voigt, fifth, 55 dash; Justin Youngblom, fourth, 1600; Jon Voigt, fourth, 400; Kaiser, fifth, 400 and second, long jump; Chris Vondracek, fifth, 800; Schmitz, fourth, triple jump.

“As young and inexperienced as we are, I was a little concerned about starting the season off against this level of competition,” said Viesselman. “And although most of our younger competitors didn’t place as high as they would have liked, we did get some good performances from our younger kids. Our goal wasn’t to see how many points we could score, but rather to give everyone a chance to get into the meet, and get some times and distances behind them.”

The Rebels compete in the Gopher Conference Indoor at Minnesota State-Mankato Saturday at 9 a.m.