This weekend’s meet against Northfield Mount Hermon, Milton and St. Paul’s Schools was a mixed bag for the Phillips Academy Track team. Both the boys and girls squads earned a couple of victories over the SPS Pelicans and the Milton Tigers, and each fell to the Hoggers. The girls loss was especially tough, coming at the hands of the defending Interscholastic champions from Northfield. The weather was again dreadful, with torrential rains rivaling the snow at last year’s championship meet, but this did not prevent PA athletes from turning in great performances. Girls Captain Katie Dlesk ’03 lead the girls as usual, winning her signature race, the 400m (60s) as well as the 300m hurdles (46.9s). To round out her day, Dlesk anchored the winning 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Distance superstar Lissy Robie ’04 won both the 800m (2:28.6) and the 1500m (5:02.6), as well as running a strong third leg on the 4×400. Courtney McBride ’03 placed second in both the 100m and 200m (28.6), as well as running first leg on both relays. Marty Schnure ’06 and Mariah Russell ’04 took fourth and fifth in the 100m hurdles, clearing the barriers in 19.6s and 20.0s, respectively. Kaitlin Ainsworth ’03 placed second in the long jump with a leap of 14’7”, as well as taking third in the triple jump (31’4). Cassie Tognoni ’05 placed third in the high jump (4’6”), jumping moments before running third leg on the 4x100m relay. Javelin duo Joanna Corey ’04 and Johanna Marmolejos ’04 placed second and third, respectively, with throws of 75’2” and 71’3”. Samantha Weisz ’03 was the lone PA scorer in the 3000m run, placing third with a time of 12:21.6. Distance runner Kathryn Moore ’03 offered her perspective on the team’s prospects for the remainder of the season, saying, “It was unfortunate that we did not win on Saturday but I think all of the seniors are looking ahead to a victory at Interschols and are not bothered by the loss.” Boys The meet started at one and three and a half hours of heavy downpour later, members of the Big Blue team slowly made their way back to the gym, shivering and defeated. NMH handed Andover its second defeat in nearly three years. Sadly it was also the team’s second defeat in two weeks. The outcome of the first event, the 4 x 100 meters relay, foreshadowed the rest of the meet. Despite a close race, NMH finished on top, just inching in front of the Big Blue. With the shot put and discus events cancelled due to rain, Andover throwers dominated the only throwing event, the javelin. Led by Jonathan Dent ’05, PA captured first and third places in the event, taking the lead with 13 points. Dent’s throw of 137’ 5” earned him first place and Jeff Pena ’04 was able to place third with a throw of 124’ 3”. Unwilling to let its teammates down, the boy’s distance squad performed well, yet again. Andover’s depth in the distance events was evident as the Big Blue dominated the 1500 meter run, taking the first, second, and fourth places. Josh Wolfe ’04 controlled the race from the start, eventually kicking to the finish line first in 4:14.8. Not far behind Wolfe was Adam Kapor ’04. Kapor beat out a Milton runner to finish second in a time of 4:19.7. Jack McCallum ’03 finished in fourth place for Andover. McCallum’s time of 4:22, fast enough to have easily placed second last week. Wolfe and Kapor also placed second and third in the 800 meters, losing only to their SPS rival. Garret Vaslet ’03, the only Andover runner to place in the 3000 meters, finished in 9:32.6 for second. As the season continues, it is clear that Andover’s Achilles heal is the jumping events. The Andover boys could not place in either the high jump or the triple jump on Saturday, and Chris Lynch ’04, who placed third in the long jump, was the only defense against a complete sweep in the jumping events. The boys hope that Kanyi Maqubela ’03, slated to return after recovering from injury, will help to fill the gap with his natural talent and experience. Hurdler Sam DuPont ’04 had a stellar performance on Saturday. DuPont finished third in the 110 meter hurdles, with a time of 19.9 seconds, in addition to finishing second in the 300 meter hurdles with a time of 46 seconds even. In the 400 meters, Big Blue grabbed the first and fourth places. Knef King ’04 seems to be heating up as he improved on his performance from last week, finishing in first place with a time of 51.9 seconds. Gavin Kuangparichat ’03 captured fourth place, running a quick 53.9. Both runners also contributed to an Andover 4 x 400 meter relay later on in the meet. The team, comprised of Wolfe, Kapor, Kuangparichat, and King, absolutely demolished the competition, finishing nearly half a lap ahead of St. Paul’s and even further ahead of NMH. Andover took first in the 100 meters, with the help of O’Shea Galan ’04, who crossed the tape in 11.6 seconds. In the 200 meters, David Sheldon ’04 and Elias Feghali ’05 finished second and fifth with times of 24.6 and 25 seconds, respectively. Coach Lou Bernieri put it best, saying, “You don’t need to beat NMH in the beginning of the season to be able to pound them at Interschols.”
