The fastest girls relay team in state history just went faster

The state’s fastest foursome just went faster. The Tahoma High School girls 4x100 relay team bested their already state record time, finishing the 4A state preliminaries in 46.07 seconds.

Their previous state record was 46.32 seconds, which they ran in Arcadia, California.

“It’s a Washington state record, in Washington, at state,” said sophomore anchor Aliya “Nami” Wilson.

“This is as good as it going to get. It’s at state and everyone wants the state record at the state meet,” said senior sister Tierra “Umi” Wilson.

Everything was smooth, all the handoffs went seamless aside from UW-bound Olivia Ribera saying she almost got out of her lane handing off to Nami’s twin, Alisha “Miya” Wilson for the third leg.

Nami finished leaning as far as she could into the finish.

“I almost fell over,” she laughed.

The next fastest foursome in state history was the Federal Way team of Karis Cameron, Ta’Mara Richey, Mariyah Vongsaveng and Hannah Cunliffe – they finished in 46.90 seconds in 2014.

“We are relieved that we broke it again,” Tierra said. “We can breathe again. But we want to try to get into 45. That’s our goal.”

So where did these Wilson sisters come from?

They moved from Redmond to Maple Valley two years ago. Tierra said they were begging Miya just to give track and field a chance.

Then they combined with Ribera, who has since become one of their sisters.

“People always ask if she’s a Wilson,” Nami said. “She is.”

“It’s been really amazing. I feel like they’ve made my whole track experience so much better,” Ribera said. “They make it so great. To have people you can hang out with and run with, it’s really been amazing. Words can’t describe how great they are.”

But still – people often confuse their Maple Valley Tahoma with the Mount Tahoma of Tacoma. And they originally set the state record during spring break in California, so they said few people around their school have seemed to even realize that they are walking among the fastest girls in state history.

Their Friday time is the 18th-fastest in the nation this year, according to Athletic.net.

“The track community knows and we know about other great people,” Tierra said. “But I think it’s just universal that schools don’t really focus on track that much. We know that we’re out doing what we need to do.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 5:00 PM with the headline "The fastest girls relay team in state history just went faster."