The girls and boys indoor track and field teams competed in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Division I Indoor Track & Field Championship on Friday, Feb. 17 at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center. They placed first and fifth, respectively, in an event that marked the girls’ first win in the Division I Championships in three years, and the boys’ best result since 2016, when they placed fourth.

The championship commenced with the 55-meter dashes and 55-meter hurdles races. While no Brookline competitors advanced beyond the preliminary rounds in either 55-meter dash, the hurdles races saw immense Brookline success, with senior Brooklyn Huggins and junior Chloe Barnes placing third and fourth in the girls 55-meter hurdles race, respectively, and senior Terry Chiou placing seventh in the boys hurdles race.

Brookline continued its inspired running in the one-mile races, with senior Jordan Liss-Riordan securing a hard-fought third place for the girls, besting a fourth-place finisher from Newton North High School by a mere six-tenths of a second. An even more thrilling moment accompanied the boys’ one-mile race, in which junior Kailas Ciatto darted across the line for a third-place finish, overcoming the fourth-place finisher by an even-smaller margin of three-tenths of a second.

Sophomore Anna Leschly opened the middle-distance races with a fourth-place 600-meter performance, which was followed by the 1000-meter race. Brookline senior Camille Jordan and Ashlynn Witt of Wachusett Regional High School established themselves as the two frontrunners of this event, leaving a wide gap between themselves and the rest of the competition. As the two entered their fourth lap out of five on the 200-meter-long track, Jordan gained a strong lead and ultimately set a personal best, winning the race in 2:53.26.

Jordan said her commitment to her team’s success at the meet and pursuit of improvement willed her to victory.

“Last year during [the Division 1 State Championship], I ran the [1000 meter race] and came in second place. I wanted to avoid that result this year,” Jordan said. “Our team had a great chance of winning [the competition] this year, so I wanted to play my part and gain enough points to push us over the finish line.”

After not proferring any athletes for the 300-meter races, the last of the short-distance events, the girls and boys teams reasserted their strength in the two-mile races, demonstrating grit and perseverance as they outlasted their contenders. On the girls’ front, junior Lucia Werner scored an impressive fourth-place finish in a time of 11:28.93, while junior Pablo Tejedor Meyers fended off stiff challenges in his race to achieve a seventh-place result.

Sophomore Anna Goldmuntz, who finished tenth place in the girls’ two-mile race, missing out on the top eight by slightly over three seconds, said that the team has steadily improved throughout its season, ultimately attaining its most competitive level during the Division 1 Championships.

“I think the time has just improved at working together and building off each other to find our best form at D1,” Goldmuntz said. “We have trained and competed at such a high level already, and we’re still improving.”

Interspersed throughout the individual races were the championship’s three field events: the long jump, shot put and high jump. Junior Mark Tringas executed a 6.30-meter long jump in the long jump competition to attain a seventh place finish, securing the only field-event points earned by Brookline.

After the finish of the individual running races and the field events, the crowd roared in anticipation for the marquee matchups: the relay races.

In the girls 4 x 200-meter race, seniors Huggins, Lyla Baldwin and Charlotte Smith and sophomore Thalia Goessling recorded a season-best time of 1:48.70, breaking their previous record by over two seconds and placing sixth in the event.

Smith, who ran the relay team’s third leg, said that the season best had been a long-sought-after goal for the team.

“We’ve been trying to get under 1:50 for a long time, so getting 1:48 was really special, especially since it was one of the last races of the season,” Smith said.

Brookline also fared strongly in the boys’ 4 x 200-meter relay, with senior Nicolas Braun and juniors Andrew Bamberg, Cam Walter and Tringas placing third in a time of 1:33.01.

After faltering in the field events, the Brookline girls found themselves ahead of Newton North High School by one point, and the 4 x 800 relay became increasingly critical for the team. Junior Audrey Seeger opened the race, maintaining a solid second place. Following Seeger, juniors Dasha LeFaivre and Zara Chaudry and Liss-Riordan managed to outlast their Andover opponents, ultimately emerging as first place amid cheers from the crowd.

The Brookline boys found similar success in the 4 x 800 relay, placing second in a season-best time of 8:07.59 with a lineup of senior Declan Mulligan, sophomore Altamo Aschkenasy, and juniors Hunter Bailey and Ciatto.

Mulligan said that while racing longer-distance races is often tiring, his team motivates him to stay positive and keep working hard.

“In the relays, I try to ensure that my team is in a good place after I complete my leg of the relay. My teammates have all been working hard with me, and we all strive to be the best we can be,” Mulligan said.

The night’s final event was the 4 x 400-meter relay race. Only minutes after the 4 x 200-meter relay, the 4 x 400-meter relay marked a short turn-around for the many athletes competing in both events.

Goessling, running the first-leg, ended fifth among the six in the heat. Yet, Leschly, running the second leg, overtook three teams to finish the race’s second leg in second place. Smith ran the team’s third leg, ultimately finishing third, ending with a sizable gap between second-place, and Jordan, fresh off her 1000-meter victory, ran the team’s anchor leg. Despite substantially closing the gap, Jordan finished half a second away from Franklin High School, securing the girls an additional six points from the third-place win.

During the boys 4 x 400-meter relay, the baton dropped during the pass between sophomore Ilan Luszczynski-Williams and Bamberg, and the team was unable to finish. Luszczynski-Williams said that despite the disappointment of not finishing the race, he knows what he needs to improve on.

“I began the race thinking I wouldn’t drop the baton when I passed it to the fourth leg. We practice hand-offs all the time. What I needed to practice better was handing off rather than receiving [the baton] because that’s a lot harder,” Luszczynski-Williams said. “Regardless, this was my first time at this level, and hopefully, we’ll only see improvement from here.”

With the third-place finish in the 4 x 400-meter relay, the girls cemented themselves as the winners of the Division 1 Championships, while the boys placed fifth overall. Due to the success of many of the performances in the meet, many participating athletes have qualified for the All State Championship on Saturday, Feb. 25.

The standings for the event were determined by a point-based system in which the top eight finishers in each event would score 10, eight, six, five, four, three, two or one point, based on their placement.

Lee Eddy, who coaches the girls indoor track team, said he was proudest of his team for the community they have fostered throughout the season and attributed its success to their cooperation and teamwork.

“This has been the best season I have had with the indoor team since I’ve coached Brookline. At the start of the year, we thought we could have this kind of season, but we took it one meet at a time with our eyes on the Division I [title],” Eddy said. “The team has grown closer being with each other every day and competing for the same team goals, and they were truly a team from the start to the end of the season.”

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CONTRIBUTED BY JOHN WERNER