In the last meet of the season, Algonquin boys’ and girls’ indoor track and field sent nine athletes to the New Balance Nationals indoor track meet in Boston on March 14 to compete against the top athletes from across the country.

Eight athletes competed in the sprint medley relay (SMR). The SMR consists of a relay race between four individuals, with two running a 200m leg, one running a 400m leg and the last running an 800m leg. The girls sent senior Julia Barcelos Penteado (200m), junior Jillian Belniak (200m), senior Arianna Gentile (400m) and sophomore Tanvi Mehta (800m) to compete at nationals in the SMR. The girls ran a time of 4:19.02, setting a school record and solidifying themselves among the nation’s best.

The boys sent a SMR team as well. The team consisted of senior Max Eigen (200m), senior Justin DiVitto (200m), junior Jakob Rochefort (400m) and senior Jonah Gould (800m).  Breaking the school record at the relays meet at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston earlier in the season qualified the team for nationals. The boys placed 67th of 103 teams and spoke about what the weekend meant to them.

Senior Miles Lipka went to nationals, qualifying for the pentathlon by breaking the state record with 4,021 points earlier this season. He followed that up by winning the national title, beating out all the competitors from across the country.

Between the boys’ track team’s state championship and the girls’ team breaking multiple school records this season, the track program as a whole had a historic season.