Since the spring, the Concord High School girls’ track program has been showing signs of being a medal-winning team. On Saturday, everything came together.

Senior Ella Goulas won the long jump (17 feet, 8.75 inches) and finished third in the high jump; senior Ballay Conteh (long jump), junior Grace Saysaw (55-meter dash) and sophomore Consuelo Borico (shot put) all had runner-up finishes; senior Shelly Smith gutted out two scoring performances in the distance events, and the Crimson Tide capped the meet with a title-winning 4x200-meter relay to finish second in the Division I indoor track and field championship meet at Plymouth State University.

Favorite Bedford defended its title with 72 points, but Concord (62) challenged the Bulldogs right until the end to claim the runner-up plaque. Exeter (57), Nashua North (49) and Pinkerton (48) were the remaining top five teams and easily outpaced the rest of the field.

“I was anticipating, probably, fourth,” Concord head coach Zach Procek said. “Our kids definitely exceeded expectations.”

The Tide got off to a good start through the field events with Goulas winning the long jump 1.5 inches ahead of Conteh. Concord got a bit of a break when last year’s New England champion, top-seeded Annika Scott of Bedford, fouled on all three of her attempts, opening the door for more points for the Tide.

Goulas and Conteh remained consistent, as they have all winter. Goulas also cleared 5 feet in the high jump to take third. Both girls qualified for New Englands in their jumping events.

“Ella’s primary focus had been high jump (she went to nationals for high jump last year),” Procek said. “But due to how much she loves triple jump (a spring track event) and how much she’s developed, she’s really focusing on horizontal jump this year, and this winter her focus shifted to long jump. She’s been working on her technique much more consistently.

“Ballay didn’t start track until last year anyway, but she’s really found a love for the sport and the confidence in her own talent,” Procek added. “She’s done a really nice job this winter; she’s taken her training seriously. She’s become a core of the team. Not just for her talent, but also her character.”

Another highlight was Borico, who didn’t throw the shot put further than 29-2 in the spring but had a huge throw a couple of weeks ago (36-5.25) to claim the No. 1 seed heading into Saturday. Borico threw 34-8.25 at states to take second.

“That’s a monstrous improvement,” Procek said. “She has a lot of talent, but she’s also a blank slate and really wants to learn. She’s committed. She trusts in the process. She’s picking up on everything (throws coach Skylar Staffier) is working on with her.”

Scott shook off her long jump performance to set a new state record in the 55-meter hurdles (7.84 seconds) and win the 300 meters, and Bedford teammate Mikita Barry won both the 1,000 and 1,500 and anchored the winning 4x800 relay to give the Bulldogs big points on the track.

Senior Shelly Smith led 14 of the 15 laps in the 3,000, finishing in second to Exeter’s Alexis Paterna by four seconds, and finished fourth in the 1,500 later in the meet.

“Shelly had a fantastic day,” Procek said. “She had a (17-second personal record) in that 3,000, and she ran a really gutsy race holding the lead for so long. She ran the best race she could’ve. She was very proud of herself, as she should be. … She’s steady. She finds a pace and locks into it.”

Smith’s time of 10:23.78 was enough to qualify for New Englands and provisionally qualify for nationals. She still had enough in the tank to take fourth in a tightly contested 1,500 race. Even more impressive is that Smith was injured for the greater part of last year and wasn’t fully able to compete in cross country until late in the fall.

“She gave it everything she had and ran a really smart race,” Procek said. “For us to get runner-up depended a lot on (our athletes) to score points in multiple events.”

The Tide won the final event of the day, with junior Chelsea Toenah joining Goulas, Conteh and Saysaw to take the 4x200 in 1:47.9.

That quartet, which holds the school record in the 4x100 outdoors, was anchored by Saysaw, who ran a 7.31-second 55 in the prelims before finishing second with a 7.32 in the finals.

“She’s a joy to work with,” Procek said. “She started out her freshman year, track was something she was doing because she had some talent for it, but it was mostly social. But last year during outdoor, she really started to see herself the way the (coaching staff) was seeing her. This winter, a lot of her focus has been in technique. …

“I’m confident she’s got even more room to take off. She’s learning more about herself and what the sport has the potential to bring her. The amount of effort she puts in, she’s seeing it pay off.”

Saysaw, Toenah, Goulas, Conteh, Borico and Smith all have the opportunity to compete in New Englands on March 1 at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston.

Outside of the scoring performances, junior Bakela Massaquoi qualified for states with the 16th and final spot in the hurdles but outperformed to finish 14th.

The Concord boys only had two qualifiers – junior Tim Fahnbulleh in the 55 (15th) and freshman Spencer Clemans, who improved from 9:44 to 9:30 to finish 11th in the 3,000.

Pinkerton defended its boys’ title with 71 points, followed by Nashua North (48), Bishop Guertin (37), Nashua South (34) and Londonderry (32).