With the Crater boys track and field team working year-round, there may be no better sign of its consistency and mettle than by winning a third national title in the distance medley relay this past weekend at the Nike Indoor Nationals in New York.

On Friday night at The Armory, the Comets walked away with the DMR title in the championship division by a mere blink of an eye to edge out Dreamville of Florida with a time of 10 minutes, six-hundredths of a second. Dreamville came in at 10:00.25.

After winning national titles last year at the New Balance Nationals Indoor in Boston and the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Eugene, the Crater relay team — comprised of Tayvon Kitchen, Nicholas Kube, Caleb Doddington and Josiah Tostenson — was able to pad its excellence in the long distance relay.

“They’re all special but I think coming back and having to defend the titles is always a little harder,” said Crater distance coach Justin Loftus. “Everybody did their job and stepped it up and brought it home. It’s not easy doing that after flying out here in New York in the middle of school.”

After running a 4:07.4 mile on the anchor leg, Josiah Tostenson raised his hands as he crossed the finish line of the monumental team victory. Kitchen (1,200 meters) and Kube (400 meters) teamed to get a 3:56 mile over the first two legs, and Doddington handed the baton off to Tostenson after a strong 800 meters in 1:56.45.

“The boys crushed it,” he said. “(Dreamville) had come up on us and had a strong closing leg, but Josiah held on and we won it.”

On Saturday, Crater continued with some strong individual performances as Kitchen placed fifth in the 5,000 in the championship division with a personal record 14:18.75. The event was highly competitive, with the two heats in the race combining for the top 14 national times of the year.

“All-American and top-five performance is a huge accomplishment,” Loftus said about Kitchen’s individual race. “He just keeps on getting better and better. He was also very excited for his teammates in the DMR the night before that he led off on.”

Tostenson also closed out the indoor season with an eighth-place finish in the championship mile with a time of 4:12.21.

On the field, Gabe Grant sprung to second place for Crater in the emerging elite division of the long jump with a distance of 23 feet, 1.25 inches. The senior also recorded a personal record in the event, beating his previous one of 22-4.5 from last year’s outdoor season.

With the Comets finishing the indoor season, Loftus said it was just a “bonus” to let some of his athletes experience the high-caliber environment to gear up for the long-awaited spring season.

“You’re gonna see times and athletes and coaches and the whole thing you don’t necessarily see in the valley,” he said of the nationals environment. “It’s just an eye-opener for these kids to see that level of competition and to compete against guys from all over the country.”

“It’s not necessarily something that I have to do with the kids, but they are super excited about doing it and to claim another national championship is a pretty cool thing for them to be a part of.”