Sports

Captain Hsu ’06 Wins 50M and 300M As Boys Track Defeats Rival Exeter

On Wednesday, Captain Greg Hsu ’06 performed phenomenally to lead Boys Track to a 59-45 upset of Exeter. Captain Hsu began with a win in the 50 in a time of 5.8 seconds and then added a surprise win in the 300, running 35.82. Andover did not excel against Exeter in the field events. However, it was able to accumulate enough points in certain areas to win. Mario Noyola ’06, as always, won in the pole vault, jumping 12’6” and beating his nearest opponent by a foot and a half. Third place was two and a half feet back. Joe O’Hern ’07 managed to obtain second place points in the shot put, throwing 44’4”, just 8.5” away from the winner. Merzudin Ibric ’06 jumped 5’8” in the high jump and 20’2” in the long jump, good enough for third and second, respectively. When it came to the longer events, Andover knew that Exeter’s distance runners would be formidable competition. The team was depending on the sprinters to pick up the slack but as Captain Hsu put it, “distance fought very well,” and came away with some unexpected points. The mile saw some drama as Exeter’s number one, Bruce Hallet, was disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct, taunting Andover runners from the front, giving Andover first and second with Kentaro Watari ’07 (4:43.3) and Eli Howe ’09 (4:48.3). The two-mile started with Dave Wilson ’09 battling with Exeter’s Keggi at the front, followed by Watari and another Exeter runner. Keggi pushed the pace and Wilson stuck with him for the majority of the race. Eventually, Keggi broke away to win, but Wilson and Watari were able to secure second and third. Hallet was back for the 1,000 and with him was Godfrey, another exceptional Exeter middle-distance runner. They took first and second but back from injury was Alex Hugon ’07 who fought for third place points. Hugon, who had thought he had a stress fracture in his lower leg, had not run in over a week. The injury did not turn out to be a stress fracture and is healing well, with the help of some shoe inserts. Although Exeter won most of the long distance point, Andover dominated Exeter in the sprints. Andover took first and third in the hurdles, led by Jason Soule ’06 in 6.42. Andover then repeated that in the 600 with Ibric (first, 1:18.98) and Cam Smith ’07 (third, 1:22.27). In the 50, Andover again took first and third but this time also second, sweeping completely with Captain Hsu (5.8), Luinis Tejada ’08 (5.8), and Soule (5.9). Captain Hsu then went on to win the 300 in dramatic fashion. He went out fast, leading the Exeter runner through the entire race. He did not relent, and took first. Soule, coming back from third, passed the opponent on the final turn and flew in for second. Hsu ran a personal best time of 35.82, over a half-second better than his previous best. Though Andover already had the win locked, it added a relay victory for emphasis. Down by 10-15 yards at the start of the last leg, Ibric stormed back to win by 1.2 seconds before collapsing onto the track. Said Mike Discenza ’09, “There was an explosion as the gun went off for the last lap. After he won there was a mass migration of people to Zoom. It was an Andover-Exeter moment.” On Sunday Andover will travel to Harvard for the USATF New England Championships.