Massachusetts and New Hampshire Transgender Track Runners Could Win State Championships This School Year

By Tom Joyce | August 31, 2023, 16:59 EDT

Chloe Barnes running in the right lane for Brookline High. Screenshot taken from MSTCA-TV YouTube channel.

Possibly. It’s unclear how the seasons will play out, but at least two male athletes who identify as transgender and compete on girls’ sports teams are contenders once again this year.

One is Brookline High School senior Chloe Barnes, a cross country and track runner first identified as transgender by TB Daily News and The Sag, the Brookline High student newspaper.

Barnes was a part of two Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 1 state championship-winning teams last year:  the Brookline High girls’ cross-country team and the Brookline High girls’ indoor track and field team.

Brookline should have an experienced cross-country team this season. It will likely return four of its top five runners, as only one of its top five from last season graduated, according to Athletic.net.

As a junior last season, Barnes was not a varsity cross-country runner. However, Barnes was the team’s fastest junior varsity runner, as NewBostonPost previously reported, an indication that Barnes will likely be a varsity contributor this season.

Brookline will likely have a good cross-country team this season and if it can win a state title, Barnes will have a helping hand in it.

The other state title Barnes was a part of last year was the one where the runner made a more direct impact.

Barnes competed in the varsity 55-meter dash for the girls’ indoor track and field team last season and helped the team win its Division 1 state title.

Barnes earned a fourth-place finish in the 55-meter dash, while Brookline won a team state championship at the state meet. 

Two of the girls Barnes finished behind were seniors last year, leaving only one runner in Barnes’s way:  Franklin High School senior Sarah Dumas, who beat Barnes (8.72 seconds) by 0.24 seconds last year (8.48 seconds)

Therefore, many scenarios exist where Barnes could win an individual state title, whether it’s beating Dumas’s time with improved speed and technique, an injury to the Franklin runner, or moving to a different event.

Plus, if Brookline repeats as a team state champ, Barnes will have contributed to that title as well.

Not to mention, if Barnes competes in outdoor track, that could be another opportunity to enjoy success. Barnes only competed in one outdoor track and field meet near the end of last season, so it’s unclear where the runner stands in terms of outdoor track.

In New Hampshire, Kearsarge Regional High School sophomore Maelle Jacques has state-champion potential.

As a freshman last spring, Jacques finished second place in one event and fifth in another at the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 3 championship meet on May 24, as several right-of-center news outlets reported, including TB Daily News, and NewBostonPost.

Jacques finished second in the 1600-meter run (5:32.39) and fifth in the high jump (4 feet, 10 inches). In the 1600-meter, the only runner faster than Jacques was teammate Molly Ellison, now a senior at Kearsarge (5:30.43). The only two runners who finished within 10 seconds of them both graduated last spring.

Like Barnes, Jacques could win a state title with improved speed and technique, if one of the two teammates moves to a different event, or if Ellison does not compete in the state title meet due to an injury. Improvement is a possibility as Jacques (5:16,86) finished just 0.96 seconds behind Ellison (5:15.90) at the New England Interscholastic Outdoor Championship, where Jacques came in 14th and Ellison in 13th. 

After this upcoming school year, Jacques may have a clearer path to winning state titles, however, as Ellison will graduate next spring.

It’s unclear if Jacques competes in cross country or indoor track and field.

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