The baton is passed from hand to hand, briskly; it almost seems as though the spectators don’t have time to blink, don’t have time to breath, don’t have time for anything except to watch in awe as a new record is set.

At the MSTCA Freshman and Sophomore Meet on Saturday, May 4, the freshmen and sophomores on the track team set the record for the four by eight with a time of 8:19.

According to sophomore Myles Liss-Riordan, the team had been talking about setting the record for a while.

“We knew we could do it,” Liss-Riordan said. “We all had our minds on it and when the meet came we were ready to attack and that’s what we did.”

To prepare for this meet the team had been working together and pushing each other with workouts. Sophomore Vivian McMahon explains that they’ve been preparing for this particular meet early in the season.

“In general we prepared by understanding who we were racing against and deciding on what event we were running early in the season so we could train properly,” McMahon said. “We made sure to stay relaxed throughout the season so that we could have fun and enjoy the competition.”

According to sophomore Jimmy Ibrahim, prior to this meet, the meet’s record was 8:24 which means each relay leg person would have to run 800 meters in about 2:06. However, the team was convinced they could beat that time.

“We knew we could do better than that,” Ibrahim said. “We know that Myles can run it in 1:57, Spenser can run in 2:05, I can run it in 2:05 and Adrien is capable of running it in 2:10, which easily averages out to less than 8:24.”

The track team thought they would come into the meet being seeded first. But another school, St. John’s Prep, put themselves ahead of the meet record as well.

“It’s sort of motivating for us because they think they can beat us and are better than us,” Ibrahim said.

The four ran it in 8:19. Liss-Riordan was the last leg, and when he was handed the baton he was tied with a runner from St. John’s Prep.

“I was battling one of their kids and it was a neck and neck battle,” Liss-Riordan said. “We were neck and neck throughout the whole race and in the last 50 meters of the race I pulled ahead and we got the record which was pretty exciting!”

Additionally, sophomore Vivian McMahon’s personal was to place in the top three.

“We have a strong freshman and sophomore class,” McMahon. “So most of us were able to reach these goals and everyone was fairly pleased with how they ran.”

After setting the record, the team feels really good about the upcoming meets. They have been planning on setting the record for a long time and with this past win the team has adrenaline for the rest of the season.

“It feels really good because this meet is a meet that foresees the future of track and field,” Liss-Riordan said. “I feel like because we broke this record, we can break many more records as well so I’m really excited that we did that. I feel like it’s going to build momentum for our team in the future. The future is looking bright for Brookline High Track.”