The Gray Bee track team proved doubters wrong at New Balance Nationals on Mar. 12 and 13. The 4×800 meter relay and the 4×400 relay came close to achieving All-American status but missed the mark by milliseconds.

The 4x800m relay ran the race of their lives. Senior Scott Bamberg, freshman Ronald Kigen, UDII Byron Simmons, and senior Stephen Valvano ran 11 seconds faster than their previous seasonal best. Each leg went under two minutes and ran a personal best. The team managed to place 7th running a 7:50. The relay missed the All-American standard by a little over half a second. Despite not achieving All-American status, the team broke the school’s previous record of 7:52 and is now ranked tenth all-time in the state.

The first-time qualifier Scott Bamberg was heartbroken after missing that All-American standard.

“It was rough, but outdoor we have a mission of being national champs,” he said. “We already qualified for outdoor nationals and Penn Relays. Our goal is to bring gold home to the hive.”

The Millrose champions, Stephen, Byron, and seniors Jared Lampley and Magnum Phelps, were gunning for a national championship. Each leg on the relay split 50 seconds and together they managed to run 3:21. The relay placed 8th, missing All-American status by .31 seconds.

Stephen said that the race was crowded which made it difficult to pass people.

“We ran okay, but not as good as we were capable of,” he said. “Even though we came up short on our goal of being All-Americans, we are hungrier than ever.”

Freshmen Isaiah Sanchez and Demere Kearny ran the Freshman 400m dash. Demere, whose personal best is 53 seconds, had difficulty finishing on Saturday. Losing momentum on his last lap, Demere ran 55 seconds placing 38. In the beginning, Isaiah ran well; he stayed with the pack for the first 200m of the race. However, coming down the back straightaway on the last lap, he got tangled with another runner and fell. Although it was a hard effort, Isaiah was not able to finish his race.