Brielle Bastian couldn’t hear her.

But the screams of her mother Beth Bastian from the infield were unmistakable.

She had just watched her daughter win the girls 400-meter state title.

“Very, very loud,” head coach Caleb Williams said of Beth’s reaction, standing right beside her when Brielle crossed the line. “I think my ears are still ringing. She dropped to her knees in tears.”

It was hard to blame her.

At the Class 3A Idaho State Track and Field Championships on May 16 at Middleton High School, Brielle had just become only the second girl in program history to win the 400-meter state title and the first in 37 years.

“When I crossed the finish line, I could just see my dad cheering,” Brielle said. “I was just really happy to see all of them there supporting me.”

Mom was even closer.

This wasn’t the first state title she had watched her daughter win either.

Beth, who is an assistant coach with the track team, was on hand at the Class 3A State Cross Country Championships last fall as Brielle crossed the finish line in 14th place. It not only earned her medalist honors, but helped the Dragons win their first state title in 24 years. Beth knows firsthand what that feels like — she was on the very first girls cross country championship team in 1999, the first of three straight.

“It seems like you see the parents go through, and then a couple years later you’ll have their kids — everybody’s related in this town,” Williams said. “The athletes just come in waves. It’s the next generation coming in.”

One of the only ones who wasn’t there was her older sister Brynlee Bastian. But she had a good reason. Brynlee had been serving an 18-month LDS mission in Independence, Missouri — she just returned Thursday.

The two have a lot in common. Brynlee was a track standout at Malad herself, earning 13 state medals including four in the 400. But she never quite topped the podium.

Brielle finally set the record straight.

“I just really wanted to win it, kind of for her,” Brielle said. “She’s always been really good and she’s such a great example to me. I just really wanted to beat her time.”

She did just that.

Her winning time of 59.43 came just six hundredths of a second better than the one Brynlee put up two years ago. Brielle now sits second all-time in program history in the 400 behind only Oaklie Hebdon, who ran 57.68 and won four state titles — three in the 300-meter hurdles and one in the triple jump — before going on to compete at nearby Idaho State.

With seven state medals and a title already to her name, Brielle appears well on her way to chasing her down, too.

“I think it could use a couple more,” she said of the drawer on her desk where she keeps her medals.

Brielle hadn’t run the 400 since sixth grade before picking it up again last season. It wasn’t exactly her idea.

Williams inserted her into the event early in her freshman season, needing another competitive option in the 400. Brielle was skeptical at first. Her debut didn’t exactly inspire confidence either. She took eighth at the Cougar Classic at Firth High School in 1:06.90.

“The first meet, it was quite hard and I was like, ‘Oh no,’” she said. “And then Williams came back and said, ‘Let’s try another meet.’ And I was like, ‘OK’. And then it just kind of went from there.”

But the next week she shaved three seconds off her time and never went above 1:03 the rest of the season. She went on to win the district title and take fifth at state.

“She’s done anything I’ve asked her,” Williams said. “If I put her in a race, she runs it, she doesn’t complain.”

That was once again the case this past season — and it paid off in the biggest way possible.

Going into the final, Brielle drew lane four — exactly where she wanted to be.

“I do better in three or four because I have someone out there to chase,” she said.

The conditions weren’t ideal. It was cold and windy, and some of her competitors were rattled standing in the bullpen. Not Brielle. She and teammate Halie Palmer, who ended up taking fifth, looked at each other and both thought the same thing.

“This is ours, we got this.”

Williams had given her a simple directive: get out fast the first 200 and trust your endurance to finish.

“If she’s in the lead at the 200 mark, nobody’s going to catch her,” Williams said. “She has the most endurance and the most grit out of any of my 400 runners.”

She was. And nobody did — not until those final frantic meters when Nampa Christian’s Jordyn Dwello made her move. But Brielle held on, winning by just 30 hundredths of a second in 59.43 — the first time she had broken a minute in her life.

It allowed her to join Elizabeth Ward as the only girls 400-meter state champions in program history. Ward won the event in 1989 — 21 years before Brielle was even born. She went 4-for-4 that state meet with titles also in the 100, 200 and long jump. Her seven state championships are the most by any girl athlete in school history.

“She’s probably the most humble athlete you’ll ever meet,” Willams said about Brielle. “She’s never going to take credit for what she’s done, never going to say she’s better than anybody else.”

But she does want that dog.

Brielle’s father Clint Bastian promised to buy her one if she won a state title. She has yet to receive it.

“Maybe I’ll just get something else,” Brielle said with a laugh.

Williams hasn’t forgotten either.

“I told her I’d go buy it myself if he doesn’t,” he said with a grin.

Brielle added a silver in the 4x400 relay, a bronze in the 800 medley relay and took fifth in the triple jump. It all helped the Dragons finish fourth with 54.5 points for a fourth consecutive state trophy.

“The hard work really does pay off,” she said. “I just did that. I have the medals to prove it.”