In the upcoming indoor track season, Co-Captains Marty Schnure ’06 and Greg Hsu ’06 will look to step up and fill the spots left by Kojo DeGraft-Hanson ’05 and Cassie Tognoni ’05. Schnure and Hsu will both rack up points in the sprints for Andover. Schnure ended last year’s season with a 9.79 in the 60 meter hurdles at Harvard. Hsu is currently coming off of a strong cross-country season in which he led the Andover JV. Beside Hsu in the sprints will be returnee Rajeev Saxena ’06 and newcomers Jason Soule ’06 and Merzudin Ibric ’06, both of whom are already outstanding competitors. Mario Noyola ’06 will be returning to the pole vault and should pile up points just as he has done in past years. He finished tenth at the New England Indoor Championships of last year and third at the New England Prep Outdoor Championships. The boys distance scene will be led by talented cross country runner Kentaro Watari ’07. Watari ran to fifteenth place at cross-country Interschols last season to make the All New-England Team and should continue his success during indoor track in the 1,000, mile, and two-mile. Last year he ran a 4:52 mile at the New England Championships. A group of talented freshmen will also be carrying over from cross-country. David Wilson ’09 and Eli Howe ’09 will both be running come race time and should figure into the scoring, but Mike Discenza ’09 injured his foot in a Junior Olympic race in December and may take the season off in order to save himself for the spring. These freshmen powerhouses will be joined by Eliot Shimer ’07, Alex Hugon ’07, and Hanson Causbie ’08, all coming off of successful cross-country seasons. Ibric may also take a chance at distance with the 600. All of the distance runners will cycle through the different events, focusing on building speed for other seasons. Without Tognoni and Sonia DeYoung ’05, sprinters Kit Harris ’07 and Colleen Thurman ’07 will need to help Captain Schnure in securing points. Aba Temeng ’06, who placed ninth at last year’s Indoor New England Championships, will contribute in the shot put and Alyse Kennedy ’06 will contribute with her already-founded skill in the high jump. Rebecca Howe ’06 will lead the way for Andover in distance events. Last season Howe clocked a 5:44 in the mile at the New England Championship meet. Kennedy and Hannah Comeau ’06 both promise to strengthen Andover over 600 yards. Sarah Dowd ’06, who has improved tremendously throughout last year’s track and this fall’s cross country seasons, will compete in the mile and two-mile. Dowd finished fifth in this year’s JV cross-country interschols. The track teams will compete mostly in tri-meets. The competition includes Wilbraham, Tewksbury, Andover High, Masconomet, and Lawrence. On February 15th, Andover will take on Exeter in what is the highlight meet in a season with no interschols. Andover will also compete in a handful of invitationals hosted by Boston University, The Greater Boston Track Club, and USATF.
