Brookline track faces off against hundreds of teams at nationals
Both Warrior track teams competed at nationals in the sprint medley relay, the 4 x 800-meter relay and the 4 x mile relay. A culmination of consistent work over the season, both teams were content with their results.
The girls and boys indoor track and field teams competed in the New Balance National Indoor 2023 championship from Friday, March 10 through Sunday, March 12 at the Track at New Balance in Boston. Nationals is regarded as a highly competitive meet with teams from all around the United States. Both the Brookline boys and girls teams competed in the sprint medley relay, the 4×800-meter relay and the 4xmile relay. The Brookline Warriors performed well and enjoyed the experience.
DAY 1
Although the New Balance Nationals track meet began on Thursday, March 9, the Brookline teams first raced on Friday, March 10. Excited chatter could be heard by different teams as each prepared to race their events.
Junior Mark Tringas said he was nervous but excited to race.
“I was ready and not stressed for the race because I was as prepared as I could be. Going into the race, a lot of our players were still recovering from injuries preventing us from doing as much preparation as usual so we knew that it wasn’t going to be our best, but I still felt confident and it was an incredible experience. I was honestly just excited about being there,” Tringas said.
Tringas, along with juniors Andrew Bamberg and Cameron Walton and senior Nico Braun ran onto the track ready to represent Brookline in the boys sprint medley championship.
Tringas opened the race for Brookline, running the first 200 meters and giving Brookline a comfortable start. Braun then continued the next 200 meters and maintained a reasonable pace. Friends and family of the runners whistled and hollered from the stands throughout the race.
Braun then passed the baton to Bamberg who ran the next 400 meters of the sprint. Pushing Brookline’s pace, he was able to improve their position by two before passing the baton on to Walters who ran the final 800 meters of the sprint.
Tringas said that the team set a threshold of success throughout the season and they saw nationals as a fun conclusion to the season and hopes they will only continue to progress in the future.
“The season was really good. Our team did well overall, especially with the 4 x 800,” Tringas said. “Though some of our races were not amazing, it was more of a fun race than a race we needed to win and we are looking forward to competing next year and reaching the goal of nationals qualification for both relays and long jump. I was half an inch off of qualifying for the long jump, so I can’t wait to attempt to make it for the outdoor seasons.”
Seniors Lyla Baldwin and Charlotte Smith, sophomore Thalia Goessling and junior Zara Chaudry raced for the girls sprint medley championship.
Like the boys, the girls were also eager to be there. Chaudry said they ran a good season and viewed nationals as an opportunity to try their best and have fun without pressure.
“It was honestly a no-expectations race. We came here to have a good time. Overall, we all ran to the best of our abilities and we had fun doing it,” Chaudry said.
Baldwin ran the first 200 meters of the sprint, setting Brookline’s pace on track for success. The baton was passed to Smith who ran the next 200 meters of the race. By the 400th meter, Smith had both maintained Brookline’s pace and ran her personal record of 27.61 seconds before passing the baton to Goessling who embarked on the next 400 meters of the race.
Goessling held onto Brookline’s leaderboard position and passed the baton to Chaudry who ran the remaining 800 meters. Chaudry said that though Brookline did not place in the higher tier of competing teams, they were proud of their relay and happy to have had their nationals experience.
“It was definitely an interesting race overall. We were a little bit off our original SMR time, and we played around with the people in our group, but overall we had a pretty good race. A lot of people got personal records and it was a good time overall,” Chaudry said.
Girls assistant coach Adrienne Pascucci said the experience was great for the team.
“I feel great about the race. A lot about this weekend is the experience; it’s fun to be here. We’re at this brand new track, and everything looks cool. I feel great, I think they had a lot of fun racing here and since it’s not part of our regular season, it’s about having fun,” Pascucci said.
DAY 2
On day two of nationals, the Brookline track teams participated in two events: the girls and boys 4 x mile relay.
The girls team saw senior Jordan Liss-Riordan run the lead-off leg, junior Lucia Werner run the second leg, junior Audrey Seeger run the third leg and senior Camille Jordan run the final leg. They placed 7th with a combined time of 21:14.20, six seconds behind 6th place (which would have named them All American) and roughly two minutes and 30 seconds behind Lewisville, Florida in first place.
According to Seeger, despite not placing as high as they wanted, the team is still proud of their performance and grateful for the opportunity.
“We were hoping for top six so that we could get an award but it was still really fun and I think this experience was worth it,” Seeger said.
On the boys side, senior Declan Mulligan ran the first leg, junior Pablo Meyers ran the second leg, junior Ben Kasen ran the third leg and junior Kailas Ciatto ran the final leg.
The boys team placed 14th with a combined time of 18:09.52, only two seconds behind 13th place and roughly 35 seconds behind Union Catholic High School in first place.
According to Mulligan, the key to overcoming the challenges of getting to nationals has been staying consistent throughout the season.
“It’s tough to be consistent throughout the whole three month season. There have been a lot of ups and downs; we’ve been struggling with sickness and some injuries so just trying to stay consistent throughout a long season is pretty difficult, but we did it and we’re here,” Mulligan said.
DAY 3
Day three of Nationals ended the weekend with two highly anticipated races for the Warriors, the boys championship 4 x 800-meter relay and the second being the girls championship 4 x 800-meter relay.
The boys 4 x 800 featured sophomore Altamo Aschkenasy as the lead-off leg, followed by junior Hunter Bailey running second, Mulligan running third and Ciatto running the last leg of the race. The boys placed 11th overall with a combined time of 7:55.78, only 12 seconds behind Hinsdale Central High School who placed 1st in 7:43.82.
Aschkenasy set a personal record during the race of 1:58.33 and said he felt happy with the boys performance and is looking forward to improving even further in future seasons.
“I feel like that in every race I have been in, we did pretty good, but we could always be doing better. Next season we’re gonna be in the mindset of doing it better,” Aschkenasy said.
The girls 4 x 800 featured Seeger as the lead-off leg, followed by junior Dasha LeFaivre running second, Liss-Riordan running third and Jordan running last. The girls placed 9th overall with a time of 9:14.59, which was almost 15 seconds faster than their race at the MIAA Meet of Champions less than a month prior.
LeFaivre, who also set a personal record of 2:19.39, said she feels pleased with her team’s performance and satisfied with the weekend’s outcome.
“I’m just so happy I got to race here. I didn’t go last year which was a little disappointing but this year definitely made up for it,” LeFaivre said. “We were all happy to qualify, and now that it’s over, I’m just proud of my team and for how far we got.”
