If the Wilbraham & Monson Academy Girls Track team is this good in April, what will the Titans be like in May?

With Ava Aguiar ’23 and Arielle Chechile ’24 leading the way, four more records fell in the second and third meets of the season as the Titans improved to 7-0.

At Cheshire Academy on April 19 in the second meet, Ava ran a time of five minutes, 4.2 seconds in the 1,500-meter run and Arielle went 34 feet, 3 inches, in the triple jump to establish new standards at WMA. Four days later in a home meet, Ava posted an 11:19.63 in the 3,000 and Arielle – in the event for the first time – recorded a 49.79 in the 300-meter hurdles for school records.

WMA hosts Cushing Academy and Watkinson School on April 29 at 2 p.m.

Quotes from Coach Danielle Vartabedian

On Ava: “Ava has been having to back off on her training a bit to do some healing during the week, but then she is rested enough to be able to put forth a great performance at the meets. She broke her own 3,000 record. She broke a 1,500-meter record from 2014. She had some stiff competition in this race and that fueled her. She was very happy and very proud.”

On Arielle: “Arielle has been steadily improving her triple jump at every meet this year. I’ve honestly never seen a PR continuously broken like this, let alone a school record. The distance before she started breaking it was 33 ½, set in 2014. She is very coachable, and as soon as you give her feedback on a jump, she is able to fix it and have an amazing performance. (Additionally,) this was the first time Arielle ran the 300 hurdles, and I knew she would be good, but when the gun went off, she was like a speeding gazelle going over those hurdles. I was so in awe. The previous record was 50.80 set in 2015.”

Quotes from Ava

On the 1,500: “Going into the season, breaking the 1,500 record was something I had been training for and wanted to accomplish. After being just two seconds shy in the first meet, I went into the Cheshire meet with that goal on the forefront of my mind, and had the confidence in myself and my training that I was ready for it. I was lucky enough to have really good competition in the race that pushed me to be able to run close to a flat five (one of my goals for this season) and to be able to break the record by almost 10 seconds was really exciting for me. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”

On the 3,000: “(In that meet) I wanted to focus on the 800 and substituted the 1,500 out for the 3,000 to be able to do that. I had zero expectations going into the 3,000 and was looking to take it as a workout after the 800, with the goal of rebreaking my record at another meet. I was not expecting to PR and break it this meet, but I was able to pace off my teammate and just run what felt good. It makes me excited for the races to come to see what I can run on fresh legs.”

Quotes from Arielle

On the triple jump: “I was very excited to hit over 34 feet in the triple jump as that has been my aim for a while. The jump that broke the record was my final attempt, and almost a foot longer than my previous one. I was so relieved and elated to hear that I had cleared that personal milestone.”

On the 300 hurdles: “This was actually my first time running the 300-meter hurdles. My goal was to get sub 50 seconds, the previous school record, but I had no idea how a full race would feel and if this was possible. I am super excited to have gotten the school record in this event, and I genuinely had so much fun running it. I hope I can have the opportunity to run it again, if not during the season, then during champs.”