Fall Sports Girls Cross Country Sports

Girls Sweep Top Five Finishes

Peyton McGovern ’16 led Andover’s top five across the finish line against Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) on Saturday to extend Girls Cross Country’s undefeated record.

“We were not afraid to put our all out there on a difficult course. We didn’t shy away from the hills and some girls who had run the course early in the season focused on improving their time, which was excellent,” said McGovern.

Following closely behind McGovern, Michaela Jones ’18, Grace Rademacher ’18, Captain Anoush Shehadeh ’15 and Carmen Bango ’16 finished in the top five with times of 19:38.7, 19:58.4, 19:59.7 and 20:01.5, respectively.

The NMH meet marked the second time this season these five runners took the top five spots. Parker Tope ’16 and Olivia Brokaw ’18 came in seventh and ninth overall with times of 22:32.7 and 22:59.7, respectively. NMH’s first runner finished sixth overall behind Bango. She won the NMH Invitational, in which Andover’s top five runners did not participate.

Andover won the race with an almost perfect score of 15-47. Pack running has been an integral part of Andover’s success this season. In three out of its four races this season, Andover has taken either four or five of the top five spots with times all within two minutes of each other. The team still has room to improve, however.

“As for what we should improve on, I think that may depend person to person because with running everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses: hills, downhills, fast finishes, endurance, etc. I think we will work to fine tune the details such as the finishing kick,” said McGovern.

Additionally, Andover hopes to lessen the gap between the top five runners and the sixth and seventh runners.

“[We need to work on] bringing the back of Varsity closer to the front. We have really strong front runners but if we could increase the depth in the back we would be even better,” said Tope.

With only three meets left this season, Andover looks to reach its peak potential in the next few weeks.

“We’ve practiced hard and now we’re sharpening our speed. Before the taper at the end of the season we’re putting in a few more hard workouts,” said Tope.

Andover will square off in a matchup against two-time defending Interschols champion Deerfield on Saturday.

“We’ve been talking about this race for pretty much the entire season, and we all know that Deerfield will be our biggest competition outside of Interschols. With the way the team has been running this season, I’m not really worried, so to say. I think that it will be more challenging than any race we’ve had so far. With the energy that’s been on this team, and the amount of work that we have put in, I don’t think this meet will be a huge problem,” said Alana Gudinas ’16.