The Cary girls 4x800 track and field relay team ran the fastest time ever by a North Carolina girls team last weekend in the Nike Indoor Championships in Boston.

The quartet of Jenna Christensen, Deanna Foshee, Sheridan Jordan and Erin Foshee ran a 9:22.14, knocking almost eight seconds off the time it ran three weeks ago while winning the N.C. High School Athletic Association 4-A indoor championships. Their 9:30.90 in the NCHSAA finals had been the fastest time ever by a group of North Carolina girls.

How do you knock eight seconds off the fastest time ever in the state?

Practice, said Cary coach Jerry Dotson.

"The girls really worked hard in preparation of the nationals," Dotson said. "It is a very special group of girls who seems to rise to the competition. They worked very, very hard in practice."

Dotson was disappointed the Imps were not placed in the fastest heat at the nationals. Teams are seeded by times in big meets like the nationals and sometimes the fastest teams don't run in the same heats.

That happened to Cary, which easily won its heat. The Imps were contested early, but ran the last two legs of the relay far ahead.

At the end of the day, their time was the fifth fastest. The top four times came from the fastest heat.

“We basically ran by ourselves the whole way,” Dotson said. “I was hoping we’d be the fastest heat and I think we could have gone a little faster if we had been pushed. We were not that far out of second place.

"But the girls are all-Americans now and we’re pleased.”

The Cary girls were aided in their effort to compete nationally by Track Eastern Carolina, an elite club team that is sponsored by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks.

The team performed so well, it may be invited to Arcadia, Calif., and perhaps to Atlanta for another chance to run against the nation's best.

"There is no question that is is a once-in-a-lifetime group of girls," Dotson said. "The season goes by so quickly, but I want the girls to really enjoy the season."

Dotson said the team would compete in the Apex Lions Relays later this spring and it has set a goal of setting the NCHSAA outdoor record in the 4x800.

"It is 9:11 and is a really tough record," Dotson said. "But traditionally, this group of girls have cut 10 seconds or move off their best indoor time. It could be close."

In many regular-season meets, however, the group probably will be split into different races.

Also in Boston, Cary’s Bakri Abushouk was fourth in the freshman mile (4:35).