Billerica High girls capture Division 3 state relay for first time

It's been quite the ride and no one wants to jump off any time soon.

The Billerica Memorial High School girls track program captured its first-ever Division 3 state relay outdoors championship during a meet in rainy and cool temperatures Sunday in Easton.

This past fall the Indians went 10-0 during the cross country season, which included a dual and league meet championship title, as well as finishing second at the 1C Meet and seventh at All-States. In the winter, the Indians finished 8-0 during the indoor track season, again winning the dual meet title, as well as the D3 State Relay Meet and the Division 3 state championship.

Led by seven first places, the Indians compiled 82 points to top second-place MasconometRegional's 56.31 points.

"It was a cold and rainy day but the girls did not let it bother them. We had athletes from all grades, from eight through twelve compete and score. It truly was a team effort," said head coach Scott Arsenault. "The girls have set high goals for the season. This meet helps with confidence, but we just want to stay focused and continue to look at the next meet."

A handful of athletes were part of multiple winning teams.

Starting with the field events, Nyrah Joseph, Julia Nott, Keelin Foye and Keira Moore were part of two each. In the high jump, the trio of Joseph, Brianna Phelan and Nott combined to clear 14 feet, five inches. In the long jump, Joseph, Lily Bower and Nott combined to jump 47-6. In the discus, Foye, Sophia and Moore combined for a mark of 259-4 and in the shot put, Foye, Ashley Caputo and Moore threw 87 feet.

Finally, in the pole vault, Emily Babcock, Carlie Cronin and Olivia Coyne combined to clear 19-5.

Arsenault said the discus title was unexpected because some of the girls were also throwing javelin at the same time.

"They had to run from event to event and managed to stay composed," said Arsenault.

In the running events, the 4×1,600 team of Kylie McGowan, Gianna, McGowan, Brianna Phelan and Anna McElhinney finished in 21:53.52 and the same four girls were part of the winning distance medley team in 12:58.10.

Four other teams also placed in the top five to help with the team scoring.

The 4×200 team of Olivia Coyne, Isabella Pereira, Nott and Bower were fourth in 1:52.00, as was the sprint medley team of Bower, Joseph, Pereira and Burdick in 4:27.24. The 4×1,600 ‘B’ team of Taylor Fitzpatrick, Lila Mackwell, Emma Ausilio and Deirdre Bailat finished fifth in 23:34.26 and the 4×800relay team of Alyssa Firorino, Bridget Finn, Avery Jennings and Grace Carter was fifth in 10:49.51.

Individually, Foye in the discus (95-6), Coyne with the pole vault (7-0) and Joseph in the high jump (5-0.25) were all tops in their event, while Phalan was part of three titles with high jump and the 4×1,600 and distance medley.

On the boys side, the Indians finished eighth and had three teams place in the top three.

The 4×200 team of Jacob Peck, Sebastien St. Pierre, Tyler Fortune and Shawn Mulkerin won with acombined time of 1:33.49. The long jump and discus teams finished third. The long jump trio consisted of St. Pierre, Gryffin Bordeau and Sriganesh Srinivasan (56-3) and the discus trio of Sean Peterson, Shan Santiago and Nathan Murray threw a combined 295-3.

Follow Us