Sports

Girls Track Second to PEA at Interschols, Looks to Weekend Rematch for Revenge

The Andover Girls Track team arrived at Exeter on a sunny Saturday morning with a chance to take home the gold in the League Championships. The girls knew it would take standout performances from each and every one of the competitors present on the day to make the dream of track athletes come true. The team, however, fell short of taking home the trophy, taking a respectable second place, beaten only by the rival Exeter squad. Captain Lissy Robie ’04 said of the day, “We felt great before the meet and used our mental excitement with our freshness to really execute some fine performances.” Despite several phenomenal performances and many season bests, the girls late event points run came up 12 short of Exeter’s 98 in one of the most competitive years the league has ever seen. Robie herself managed to steal crucial points away from the Exies in the 1500m running a season best 4:58, enough for fourth place overall. Robie and Ali Holliday ’06 competed in the 800m and secured third and fourth for the Big Blue. Holliday lead from the start through the first lap and managed to keep her form steady through the line for a personal best of 2:26, just a half second behind Robie. Both Sonia DeYoung ’04 and Annie Wilkin ’05 qualified for the finals in the 100m dash. DeYoung scored a close sixth in a fast field, with a time of 13.39sec. Wilkin finished immediately behind her teammate in 13.58 seconds but did not score in the event. DeYoung also qualified for the finals in the 200m dash by just a hundredth of a second. She ran slightly faster in the final heat enabling her to move up two places into sixth to score another point for Andover. In the 100m Hurdles, both Marty Schnure ’06 and Cassie Tognoni ’05 qualified for the finals. Schnure improved her qualifying time to 16.75 seconds and scored third place, only a few tenths behind two talented Taft hurdlers. Tognoni scored two points by earning fifth place with a time of 17.03 seconds. Tognoni returned to dominate in the 300m Hurdles, beating her opponents by over a second to claim the only solo championship medal, with a time of 48.64 seconds. Schnure took third place edging out the two Exeter girls by almost a second-and-a-half. Promising distance runner Abby King ’07 took nearly 40 seconds off her previous personal best, enabling her to score sixth place with a time of 11:14. King’s outbreak exemplifies the training that she and the rest of the team have put into the season. High Jumpers Dwyer and Tognoni claimed second and fourth places, respectively, competing against a deep field. Dwyer’s leap of 5’4” matched that of the winner; however, it took Dwyer an extra jump to clear the high mark. Tognoni’s jump of 5’0” managed to get her into fourth place. Freshman record-holder Coleen Thurman ’07, placed sixth alongside some of the best long jumpers in the league, with a distance of 15’9”. In the throws, Aba Temeng ‘06 hurled the shot an astounding 32’5 ”, a personal best by over a foot, on her second-to-last throw which was enough for fifth place. With more last minute heroics, Temeng threw the discus over a foot farther than earlier in the day, a distance of 98’10” pushing her into fifth place again for the Blue. Andover’s girls racked up the points in the javelin throw, where Johanna Marmolejos ’04, and Jennifer Meacham ’06 placed second and third. Both attained their farthest throws in the final attempt, keeping the pressure on the other competitors until the end. Marmolejos’ attempt of 92’5”represents the longest throw she has marked all season. The relay teams fared well for Andover, taking an exhilarating first place in the 4x400m Relay and finishing in a strong fourth in the 4x100m Relay. With everyone watching the final event of the day, Holliday, Jeanette Francis ’06, Schnure, and Robie, whose comeback in the final meters will be remembered for years to come, got the job done for the Andover, dropping Exeter’s led to a mere 12 points. The girls will be hungry for revenge against the Exeter squad during their next meeting on Saturday, as just a few points separate the two dominant teams. The girls’ steady improvement from week to week is pleasing to the coaches, and it could possibly turn the Red tide when the two track titans duel again.