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A year ago, Nicole Sautter had one of the state’s best girls 4×400-meter relay teams in her arsenal. 

The Lisbon/Oak Hill track and field head coach’s squad placed first in the event at the 2025 Mountain Valley Conference championships and third at the Class C meet. However, none of the four runners are participating in the 4×400 for the Greyhounds this spring. Addie Burkhart graduated and now runs for the University of Southern Maine, Riley Hoyle also graduated, Clara Madore switched sports to softball and Tayen Smith moved to the pole vault.

Such is the fluctuating nature of the 4×400 relay. Therefore, each spring, track and field coaches across the state are tasked with the trial-and-error process of figuring out which of their athletes are going to race in the event. 

“It’s sometimes difficult because kids don’t want to run the 400, being that it’s so challenging,” said Lewiston assistant coach Kenneth Ball. “A little bit of convincing, you get them there.”

Ball oversees the 4×400 for Lewiston’s program. He’s in a similar position as Sautter: the Blue Devils lost three of the four runners from last year’s relay, which finished second in the KVAC and eighth at states. Steffanie Tuffour, Victoria Mpaka and Jenni Flynn — who runs at Williams College — all graduated. 

Tuffour and Mpaka raced the event together in 2024 and 2025, and Flynn returned to the 4×400 last year after running it as a freshman. Their experience and reps together made for a relay group built on chemistry. That, along with timing and pace, is important for the event, in which each of the four athletes runs a lap around the track and then passes the baton to a teammate.

Asha Hassan, a sophomore and one of Lewiston’s captains, is the only returner from last year’s 4×400 relay group. As such, she knows just how important teammate support and connection can be during a race. 

“The 400 workouts, you have to have really good stamina, and you have to kind of just be there for each other; so as compared to a 4×100 or another relay, you kind of really have to depend on your teammates,” Hassan said. 

Senior Lubesso Sauca, junior Kaiya Poulin and freshman Sofia Pedro are running the remaining three legs of the race for the Blue Devils this spring.

Poulin ran the 4×400 a couple times last season, but this is her first season as a permanent member of the relay. She said competing such a challenging race deepens the already existent friendship among the four runners.

“Low key, the 4×4’s kind of the most hated event,” Poulin said. “No one wants to do the 4×4. So (you’re) kind of like in it together, and there’s something to kind of suffering and kind of doing something you don’t want to do together. You kind of bond over it.” 

The event’s reputation as one of the harder and more dreaded races has impacted other schools in the state as well, especially those dealing with a turnover of athletes from last year. 

Portland’s girls 4×400 team, for example, placed first at the SMAA championship and fourth at the Class A state championships last year. Head coach Frank Myatt has to replace three of those four runners — two of whom are now on track and field teams at Bates and UConn, respectively — this season. It’s an ongoing process. 

“We’ll run different combinations virtually every week in the 4×4,” Myatt said. “It’s not something you really need to fine-tune with like a 4×100. So for us, it’s about getting as much data in as possible to find out who’s given us the best splits, who’s given us the best splits when they’re tired. … It’s just about going out and competing.”

Myatt tried out one of those combinations at Portland’s first meet of the season at Bonny Eagle on Thursday. Claire Pio, a freshman, was thrown into the mix, her first time running in the 4×400.

“We didn’t have anyone for a 4×4, so our coach was just going based off of our 200 times,” Pio said.

Even though he has to replace runners and rebuild his squad from last year, Myatt doesn’t view it as a difficulty. Myatt sees it as a chance to create opportunities for younger runners — an opportunity many will have throughout the state this season due to the event’s ever-changing personnel.

“Now the board’s wide open, so if you want in, you just have to run your way onto the team,” Myatt said.