The Albany High School girls' 4 x 200 relay team capped an outstanding winter season with a fourth-place finish at the state indoor championships March 3 at Cornell University.

The Section II champions also finished third in the state among public high schools with a time of 1 minute, 45.74 seconds. It is the first time in Albany High history that the girls' 4 x 200 team qualified for the state meet, and the first time since 1998 that any member of the girls' indoor team qualified for states.

The team, which went unbeaten in Capital Region meets and shattered the school record during its stellar season, is comprised of juniors Uzoeshi Blessing, Quimoni Chandler and captain Natasia Brown (pictured), and senior Kiniqua Marable, along with alternates Tiara Gaines and Demonae Brown, both freshmen.

Brown (55 meters) and Blessing (300 meters) also competed at states. You can read more about the team's achievements in the Feb. 27 Times Union, which featured coverage of the Feb. 26 Section II state qualifying meet at the University at Albany.

Brown, Blessing (in the 200 meters) and the 4 x 200 team also competed in the 78th Eastern States Indoor Track and Field Championships in New York City on Tuesday, Feb. 28. Brown finished fifth in the 55 with a school-record time of 7.28 seconds (breaking the mark she set two weeks earlier), and Blessing was 12th in the 200.

The dynamic 4 x 200 relay team finished fifth in New York City, and although it was the first time during the season the relay team did not finish first, the team still shaved more than five seconds off of its school-record time and posted the second-fastest time ever by a Section II team in that event (1 minute, 43.96 seconds).

 At the Section II Division I meet on Feb. 19 at UAlbany, the 4 x 200 team broke its own school record for the second week in a row to win the title in 1:49.06. 

"They're really flying," coach Rickardo Smith after that event. "Every coach was just blown away."

Also at the Division I meet, Brown "lost by a toe" to Colonie standout Kyle Plante in the 55 meters, the final event of the day and one of the meet's most exciting events, Smith said. Brown finished second and set an Albany High record with a time of 7.34 seconds, just three-hundredths off Plante's winning time.

"She's getting faster and faster by the day," Smith said of Brown. "She's very impressive."

Brown won the 55 and was a member of the winning 300-meter relay team at the Great Dane Classic on Feb. 12 at the University at Albany. She also was a three-time gold-medal winner at the Big 10 championships on Jan. 28. She won the 55  at that event and also joined the victorious 200- and 400-meter relay teams to help the Lady Falcons to a second-place finish overall.

Active in a variety of school and volunteer activities, Brown also participated Feb. 9 in a student focus group about the qualities and characteristics the Board of Education should be seeking in the City School District of Albany's next superintendent, and she gave welcoming remarks to a group of UAlbany students and staff during an event at Albany High on Feb. 17.