Sports

Andover Paces St. Paul

Michael Frasco ’12 led the pack once again in Andover’s home meet against Choate on Sunday, crossing the finish line with a time of 16:33, nearly a minute and a half before Choate’s first finisher.

Andover captured its first two dual meet wins of the season this week, defeating Choate on Sunday and St. Paul’s on Wednesday.

Connor Fraser ’13 said, “Frasco is great for the team because he always gets out in front quickly and motivates everyone to pick up their own pace.”

Matt Fischetti ’14 finished second overall with a time of 18:00, and Ian Whittall ’14 and Paul McGovern ’15 finished third and fourth with times of 18:03 and 18:04, respectively. Julien Blouin ’12 finished seventh overall, and Andover won the race 19-36.

Because the meet was on Sunday instead of Saturday, the team benefited from an extra day of practice. “We had a really long training cycle, with six days to practice instead of five,” said Fraser. “It helped us because we were able to practice hills and speed for three days instead of two.”

“This year we are implementing a different strategy,” said Fraser. “We have one front runner, Frasco, and everyone else has to work together in a pack to push forward and try to catch up.” This pack running strategy has benefited Andover so far, as the team won both of its dual meets.

On Wednesday, Captain James Hamilton ’12 ran in his first race of the year, returning from an injury that had kept him off the course. Hamilton showed no signs of rustiness whatsoever, placing first for Andover and third overall.

Following closely behind Hamilton and rounding out Andover’s top five were Julien Blouin ’12, Matt Fischetti ’14, Ian Whittall ’14, and Paul McGovern ’15. With these strong performances, Andover won the race 25-36.

After an encouraging week, Andover has plenty of time for recovery for its next dual meet against NMH on October 22. Fraser said, “We have 10 days to prepare for the race, which is plenty of time to get some good workouts in and improve on our strategy.”

Andover will need all the time it can get to prepare, as it placed behind NMH in last week’s NMH Invitational Meet.