BONNERS FERRY — Gio Faroni, Riley Beggerly, Spiro Petras and Ben Middleton broke a 37-year-old Bonners Ferry High School track and field record, running the 4x100-meter relay in 44.71 seconds April 11 against Sandpoint. They believe they can break it again. 

The previous record of 44.84 seconds was set in 1989 by Badger alumni Tyler Coffey, Andy Howe, Mike Mark and Travis Hinthorn. At the 2025 state championships, a team featuring Middleton, Beggerly and Petras finished just six-hundredths of a second behind. 

Middleton sensed during his leg of the race that something special might be happening. Beggerly had a similar thought.

“The second leg on Sandpoint usually runs faster times than me, but I was ahead of him by the time I was getting to my top speed,” Middleton said. “I could feel he stopped making ground on me.” 

“I was pretty excited,” Beggerly said. “I definitely felt that day we were all running really fast.”     

Petras did not expect the record to be broken. 

“It didn't really feel like a record-breaking race,” Petras said. “It kind of just felt like the everyday 4x100 that we run every meet.” 

The race did not go perfectly, making the result even more impressive. 

“We were all pretty fatigued, so we were not trying to do any more running than we had to,” Beggerly said. “Ben and my handoff was really bad, but it still beat the record, which was pretty cool.” 

Faroni learned about the record from a teammate who could have been on the relay. 

“I was told by Conrad Hiatt that we broke it, and I honestly didn't believe him,” Faroni said. “Even after looking at the time, I still didn't really believe it.”   

Hiatt was on last year’s 4x100 state relay team that finished just short of the record, but he suffered an injury that has left him unable to compete this season. All four runners said they wished he could have been part of the record. 

“I was sad that he couldn't have been a part of it,” Middleton said.

“We’re all sad for Conrad,” Faroni said. 

The relay team has high expectations for the rest of the season, both individually and collectively. 

“I’m trying to break the 200-meter record, see a 22 on my time,” Petras said.

“I'm excited to see how fast we can end up,” Middleton said. “I'm hoping the 4x200 meter team can also break the record.” 

Beggerly also competes in field events and is trying to set records on multiple fronts. 

“I'm trying to get the long jump record,” Beggerly said. “We’ll see about the 100 meters. The four of us, I think we could definitely PR on our relay again.”   

Breaking the school record had been a goal for several years for the group. 

“I have faith that we can probably do it again,” Faroni said. “It'd been a goal since freshman year. I just keep running as fast as I possibly can and I want to perform better at state.” 

At the end of the conversation, Petras left little doubt about his confidence in the team. 

“Expect that record to be broken again,” Petras said.