On Monday afternoon, the boys’ track team overcame 12 years of frustration by beating Port Jeff, in dramatic fashion, for the first time since 2004.

The Royals led the way in the hurdle and distance events, but the Brook dominated the field events including sweeps in the long and triple jumps. Jyles Etienne inflicted much of the damage with victories in the three jumps as well as the discus. After Etienne, Alvaro Martinez Torres, and Kevin Zhang took the top three spots in the triple jump, the Bears took an eight-point edge into the three relay events that would determine the outcome. The Bears needed to win just one of the three closing relays to secure the victory, but watched as Port Jeff won the 4×800 and 4×400 to take a narrow two-point lead heading into the final event of the day: the 4×100 relay.

It was a remarkably similar scenario to the Bears’ 2004 victory over their crosstown rivals. That meet was deadlocked at 68-68 heading into the 4×100. Port Jeff was in the lead after the final handoff, but Justin Song charged down the straightaway to edge Port Jeff’s anchor by 1.2 seconds in a time of 46.1 seconds.

On Monday, the Bears were again in need of a big performance from the 4×100 team, and Kevin Zhang, Austin Amadio, Khendrick Beausoleil, and Joel Aduba came through. A series of three clean handoffs allowed the Bears to cruise to a time of 46.6 seconds to best the Royals by six seconds and win it for the Blue and White. The 72-69 victory was made all the more impressive as the Bears overcame the absence of three regular scorers. Monday’s effort represented a true team effort as the Brook scraped together just enough points to end the drought.

Here are the individual event winners for the Brook:

Khendrick Beausoleil & Austin Amadio	100	11.9
Louis Wang	400	54.7
Karl Wang	800	2:14.5
Jyles Etienne	High Jump	6′ 6″
Jyles Etienne	Long Jump	19′ 4″
Jyles Etienne	Triple Jump	41′ 7″
Jyles Etienne	Discus	117′ 2″
	4×100 Relay	46.6