Despite promising performances from Juniors Megan McCafferty and Melissa Ferrari in the field events, the girls’ track team lost a very close scrimmage meet to Reading High School on Saturday. The meet ended with PA scoring 38 points to Reading’s 41, which was an extremely close score for the first meet of the season. The result did not mean that the meet itself was a disappointment. Since this was a scrimmage, the focus was more on development and consistency than on winning. In the first meet of the season, there were a lot of first time athletes making their debuts, so it was a good experience for these young runners and jumpers despite the outcome. There were several examples on Saturday of new team members stepping up to contribute, making good impressions and gaining experience at the high school level. McCafferty scored twice, placing third in both the shot put, with a throw of 23.8ft, and the discus, throwing 72ft, 8 inches. Ferrari also placed third, but in the high jump, jumping a height of 4 feet, 8 inches. Ferrari was a member of the indoor team, and this strong first performance outdoors proves that she will be a contributor in the spring as well. No stranger to running at PA, new distance team member Berol Dewdney ’09 gave an extremely impressive effort in her first 3000m race. She beat the closest Reading competitor by nearly two minutes, finishing with a time of 10:55.4. Dewdney will certainly be a great contributor to the already dominant girls’ distance team as the season goes on. The rest of the distance team was strong as well, with at least one scoring runner in each event. Two PA runners placed in the 1500m race, scoring a total of 6 points—Georgina Norton ’09 won it with a time of 5:25.7 and Captain Abby King ’07 placed third in 5:32. In the 800m, Lower Catherine Coppinger ’09 placed third in 2:38.5. In the field events, Andover had many second and third place finishes, a solid starting point from which the athletes can learn and set goals. “I’d say that my jumps and the performances in general were good for a first meet. They were not my best, but they were good benchmarks and there’s definitely some strong talent among the newer and younger athletes,” said Colleen Thurman ’07, a seasoned veteran jumper who won the long jump and placed second in the triple jump. Another returning Senior, Cecily Pulver ’07, also placed in the triple jump, with a distance of 30 feet, 6.5 inches. In the throws, Sadiqa Farrow ’09 grabbed second in the shot put, throwing 28 feet, 7.5 inches, followed by McCaffery. Senior Akosua Oforiwaa-Ayim ’07 came second in the javelin, throwing 88ft, 8 inches. Finally, Saturday’s meet demonstrated that the team has room for improvement in the sprints. While many runners competed in the sprints, only two scored—Simone Hill ’08 and Ola Canty ’07. Hill won the 100m dash by over a second with a time of 12.1, and Canty took second in the 400m with a time of 1:05.7, less than a second behind the first place Reading opponent. The Andover relay team took second in the 4×100 with a time of 54.3, only 2 seconds behind the Reading team. Certainly the performances in this early season meet will be helpful to the team by highlighting strengths and weaknesses. By improving in areas that need work, the Girls Track team hopes to have a strong showing this Saturday in its meet against Wilbraham.
