The Boys track team, undefeated in the 2003 season, stepped onto the Exeter track this Wednesday and knew they could escape with a victory, despite the absence of several key runners. The Boys Track team has not lost a meet in two years. That last loss, however, was at the hands of the Big Red. The Boys in Blue refused to let that happen again. Andover set the rhythm for the meet, taking control of the long jump, the first event. The varsity squad of David Sheldon ’04, Alex Hardt ’04 and Captain Peter Chiu ’03 swept the long jump. Hardt had the furthest jump of the day with a mark of 20’4”, and Chiu followed close behind in second place. Finally, Sheldon took third place, rounding off an impressive performance by the long jumpers. In the mile, Piotr Brzezenski ’03 put on another impressive showing. Brzezenski fought through a talented group of Exeter distance runners, sticking with the top two Exeter runners for the whole race. On the final lap, Brzezenski was in third place and with the two Exeter runners starting to kick, it looked as though he would stay there. However, in the final 15 yards, Piotr surged and overtook one Exeter runner. His final explosion put him just hundredths of a second behind the winning Exeter runner. Running on a different sized track, with seemingly meaningless lap times, Chimaobi Izeogu ’03 performed well in the 600. When the varsity pack was not moving fast enough, Izeogu was smart to move to the front. Fighting off a cold, Adam Kapor ’04 joined Izeogu and an Exeter runner at the front and took the lead close to the one-minute mark. However, with a clear pacing advantage, the Exeter runner had saved enough energy to kick for the last 20 seconds of the race. Izeago picked it up on the final lap as well, finishing second. Kapor was able to hang on and finish third. In the 1000, Brzezenski was the only varsity runner for Andover. He stuck with PEA’s top 1000 runner for the nearly the whole race, but the Exie runner pulled away during the second to last lap of the race. Piotr kept his cool and was able to place second, far in front of his opponents. Andover’s domination continued in the 50-yard hurdles. Rich Besen ’04 led an Andover hurdling sweep, as the three flew out at the gun and destroyed the competition. A usually strong 300 yard dash group found the dirt track not so satisfying. O’Shea Galan was Andover’s only athlete to place in the event. Galan’s race was fast enough for third place. The sprinters made up for their 300-yard dash performance with blazing quick 50-yard dash times. Galan led the pack, finishing first with a time of 5.801. Lee Rattigan ’03 finished second. In the high jump, 5’4” was enough for Galan to take his second blue ribbon of the day. Josh Barclay ’05 and Hardt completed the sweep. Chris Lanterman ’03 surprised the Andover team with his second place in the two-mile, as Lanterman had not run much the past week, suffering from illness. Going into the 4 x 400-yard relay, Andover had a clear lead and had locked up a final season win. A relay team of Kapor, Chris Lanterman, John Lanterman ’03, and Izeogu closed the meet with a respectable relay. All ran quick splits, but the relay team finished just behind Exeter. However, the final win would not help Exeter much, as Andover left the building comfortably in the lead. The season ending win over Exeter completed an undefeated season for the Boys Track team. What a season it was.
