Despite a loss this week,due in part to injuries, the Big Blue is on the mend. Girls Indoor Track has made a recovery after their loss to Andover High School, as the JV runners trounced the locals at their home track last Friday. This week, the Varsity went up against Lynnfield and Masconomet in a duel meet. This past Wednesday, the Varsity Lady Blue fought valiantly in an attempt to stem the flow of losses, but were ultimately unsuccessful. While smashing their foes from Lynnfield, the Lady’s added a loss to their season by coming up short against Masconomet. The best performance of the day team-wise was the 300 yard dash, where Varsity leaders Katie Dlesk ’03, Jackie Latina ’04 and Courtney McBride ’03 took first through third, scoring ten points. Dlesk also took second in the 50 yards hurdles and third in the 50 dash, while Latina won the long jump and took second in the dash. McBride, Latina, Dlesk and Cassie Tognoni ’05 gathered their strength at the end of the meet to win the 4×400 meter relay by 26 seconds. Tognoni also managed fourth in the high jump for Andover, to take the team’s only point in that event, while Erin O’Hern ’03 took third in the shot put. The under-manned distance squad took a beating as they failed to win any of the four longest running events. Hoppy Maffione ’04, however, put in two heart-wrenching races in both the mile and two mile, where she took second with a 5:53 and third with a 13:06, respectively. Celia Alexander ’04 took fourth in the mile, while Lissie Robie ’04 took second in the 1000 and third in the 600. As she watched the girls struggling to keep up with the massive Masco squad, injured track team member Jess Lehmann ’03 commented, “Everyone [on our team] is injured.” Celia Alexander voiced the same sentiment, saying, “There were a lot of people [on our team] injured or at [the JV meet at] Exeter, but the runners we did have ran fast.” A week ago, Andover High School held an unscored meet for just junior varsity track athletes on their great new indoor track. “It was so much fun!” exclaimed Alison Murphy ’05 when they got back. It was a great meet for the team, as coaches could turn their attention from the usual varsity runners and focus on these athletes, the teams’ future stars. In all events, the girls show serious prospect. Sonia DeYoung ’05 finished first in both the 50 yard dash and the 300 yard dash with excellent times of 6.73 and 42.6 seconds. Following her in the 50 yard dash were Carolyn Johnson ’04 in 7.03 and Tiffany Chen ’04 in 7.2. In the 300 yard dash, Mariah Russell ’04 got second in 45.4 seconds, and Chen ’04 again finished third in 47.4. Marty Schnure ’06 caused a sensation in the 50 yard hurdles by dominating with a time of 7.9 seconds. Russell followed in 8.71, and Emma Etheridge ’04 came in third with 8.9 seconds. Freshman girls ruled the 600 meter run. Rebecca Howe ’06 won at 1:39.84. Kat Chen ’06 finished next for PA with a personal record of 1:47.87, and Sarah Gershkon ’06 came in third with 1:50.79. In the mile, Celia Alexander’s ’04 time of 6:06.42 barely beat Murphy’s 6:06.62. Loui Itoh ’03 followed them in 6:25.00. The team hadn’t set anyone to run the 1000 meter dash, but Alexander and Murphy stepped up to the cause. “We were kind of bored and useless after the mile anyway, so we thought why not?” laughed Murphy. Both did exceptionally well, Alexander crossing the line at 3:12.36, and Murphy close behind in 3:15.26. The athletes came back happy with their accomplishments and their coaches astonished and proud after PA’s loss to Andover High the week before. The meet had no final score, but it was clear that the PA team had superior talent in its’ new athletes.
