GBL champs and more: Revere girls track leaders discuss perfect season

By Dom Nicastro

The Revere High School girls track team more than made its mark this season. The Patriots not only won the Greater Boston League regular season with an unbeaten record but also won the GBL league meet. That’s a clean sweep if we ever saw one.

Today, we catch up with some of the captains from the Patriots on the great season, their accomplishments and what’s next. Here are the questions, followed by the student-athlete responses.

1. What events did you compete in this season?
2. What would you say are your personal highlights and why?
3. Your team won both the GBL regular season and GBL meet. How was the team able to be so successful throughout the whole season?
4. How did you go about your role as captain?
5. What’s next for you in sports and academics?

Yasmin Riazi

1. I competed in the 600, 1,000 and the 4×400-meter relay.
2. My personal highlights would be sharing everything I know to the new freshmen and sophomores. They made my season so enjoyable, and I hope they continue to do this sport and one day share what they learned.
3. The team has been so successful because we have always showed up for each other. When the meets get a bit tough or there’s an injury, the girls never hesitate to jump in.
4. I took my role as a captain as someone who the team can come to with their questions and concerns. When they get nervous and think they can’t run the race, I was there to tell them the opposite. Supporting the girls is very important.
5. I am going into the medical field to become a physical therapist and as for running, I will continue for health and not to compete.

Angelina Montoya

1. I competed in shotput this season.
2. My personal highlight of this season was senior night. It’s a memory that I will forever keep with me of seeing my teammates get together just to put something together for me. It made me feel very special and happy.
3. I think we mostly just had that energy and passion for finishing off the season undefeated which is what helped us win the GBL season. The GBL meet was a lot of teamwork that we had working through the whole season for, and I am really proud of the girls for giving it their all and getting that win at the GBL meet.
4. Since we don’t have a throwing coach, I tried to help out the throwing team a bit based on what I had learned in the past. I helped the new people on the team learn the basics of throwing and being a leader in a way with shotput.
5. I am going to do outdoor track as well and do shotput and discus. Next year I am going to college for architecture.

Camila Echeverri

1. I compete in shotput.
2. The highlight of my season has been not only seeing my personal improvement, but the improvement of the other girls on the team, especially throwers who I’ve helped coach. I absolutely love seeing new girls throw, improve and continue on our legacy. I feel very proud of them personally because I try my best to help and guide them.
3. I think the main key to our team’s success was our persistence and dedication. I think our team has amazingly talented girls, but more importantly, dedicated girls who come in every day to practice and work hard. I feel like this is the main reason we have been so successful. We also have such a pride in our team: we believe in our potential as individuals and as a team and are proud to be part of this team. This has definitely been a source of motivation for me and other girls as well.
4. Being a throwing captain is a bit of a different and more involved role because we do not have a throwing coach, so a lot of my role has been in guiding the newer girls and teaching them what I know. It taught me a lot about leadership because we’ve had to step up and take on the role of captain, but it also involves some coaching duties.
5. I’m finishing up senior year with my last outdoor season where I throw shot and discus. Next year, I’m excited to be going to college for nursing while doing sports in college is unclear in the future.

Giselle Salvador

1. The events I competed in were the 55-meter dash and the 4×200-meter relay.
2. My personal highlights were probably breaking eight seconds in my last GBL meet since it was my whole goal the entire season and also getting school record for the 4×200-meter relay at states.
3. The whole team put in hard work to reach their goals, so that really pushed us to win both the season and GBL meet. Also, our coach [Racquel MacDonald-Ciambelli] was a huge part with how encouraging she was and the way she believed in us.
4. As captain, I would find ways to motivate the girls whether that be during practices or the meets, especially when they’re nervous. That was kind of my main goal, to not have any girl on the team feel like they couldn’t PR or do their event.
5. I plan on going to college and studying exercise science.