Sports Winter Sports Winter Track & Field

Indoor Track & Field: Boys and Girls Capture Victories

Caroline Shipley ’16 raced ahead of the runners at her side, emerging from the girls 300-Yard Dash in 41.51 seconds with a critical victory. Andover Girls Indoor Track & Field relied on multiple strong performances like Shipley’s to scrape by Wilbraham & Monson Academy and Andover High on Wednesday in a close competition, a 55-10-49 victory. The girls’ counterparts, Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field, soundly defeated the same opponents in a 75-22-21 win.

A strong team atmosphere created by team Captains Camille Little ’16 and Andrew Wang ’16 has given both the boys and the girls confidence during Andover’s meets.

Krystiana Swain ’18 said, “Andrew and Camille have done a really good job making [Track & Field] feel like a family.”

Wang, who ran to a first-place finish in 7.56 seconds in the 50-Yard Hurdles, wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “[Team success is] really about the small gestures: the hug after an event, the familiar sound of a teammate’s voice. There’s the notion that track is an individual sport, but we succeed when we care for each other.”

In the shot-put, Noah Ward ’17 threw a distance of 53 feet and 9 inches to break his own Andover eleventh grade Shot-Put record for the third consecutive meet.

Peyton McGovern ’16, who won the girls Two-Mile with a time of 11:58.23 minutes, said, “We are a team that has a mix of people of all different ages. We have so many Senior leaders in many different events.”

In addition to her 300-Yard Dash victory, Shipley, a senior, also was a member of Andover’s winning 4×400 team that posted a time of 4:33.65 minutes.

Shipley said, “Team atmosphere has been building a lot since the first meet. We are at the point where everyone is competing. Everyone is standing and cheering whether they are running in the first heat or the last heat.”

Joe Okafor ’17, a newcomer to the team who set personal records in three events, said, “We really have a connection as teammates that bridges through all events and it motivates each player to excel in each event.”

Notable performances on the track included Olivia LaMarche ’16, who notched a come-from-behind victory in the Mile with a time of 5:48.84 minutes, and newcomer Holden Ringer ’17, a cross-country runner, who triumphed in the Mile and 2-Mile races with times of 4:56.70 and 10:39.55 minutes, respectively. Robert Jones ’16 also won the 50-Yard Dash for the second consecutive meet with a time of 5.91 seconds.

Strong performances in field events allowed Andover to increase the lead it established on the track.

“It was a good meet for both the girls and boys team[s] with a lot of [personal records]. The field events provide crucial points for the team and can be the difference between winning and losing the meet. So with a bunch of our throwers and jumpers placing in the meet, a bunch of points were contributed from just the field events,” wrote Ward in an email to The Phillipian.

Along with Ward’s outstanding performance in Shot-Put, Adam Herman ’17 placed third in High Jump with a jump of 5 feet 2 inches. Nathan Goldthwaite ’18 placed second in Long Jump with a jump of 17 feet 1 inch.

The team looks to tally another strong performance this Sunday at the Greater Boston Track Club Invitational Indoor Track Meet at Harvard University.