Winter Track & Field

Boys Track Places in Top Four in All Events

On the final lap of the 600-Yard Dash, Giacomo Marino ’18 ran neck and neck with his opponent from Governor’s Academy. He burst across the finish line to secure a first place win for Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field in 1:25.00 minutes. This victory contributed to the team’s strong win against Governor’s Academy and Wilbraham on Wednesday. Andover scored 76 points while Governor’s and Wilbraham scored 28 and 14 points, respectively. Andover placed in the first four places in all events.

In the 50-Yard Dash, David Onabanjo ’18 came in first place with a time of 6.01 seconds and Conor Zachar ’19 came in fourth place with a time of 6.29 seconds. Onabanjo said, “For the 50, what I personally was trying to work on was the starts. They are an important part of the race for the speed and technique.” Onabanjo also came in first place in the 300-Yard Dash with a time of 37.16 seconds.

Newcomer Alex Fleury ’20 came in a strong first place in the One-Mile, with a time of 4:57.53 minutes. Fleury attributed his success to the constant support from his teammates in the days leading up to the race. Fleury said, “I owe a great deal of it to my teammates. With practice and training over break, they kept sending me good advice. I couldn’t do it without my teammates and the feedback from my coaches.”

“It really goes a long way, and as you go around this track it is really a great inclusive environment. Everyone is cheering for you, everyone is shouting your name, and I couldn’t ask for anything better than that,” continued Fleury.

Jacob Buehler ’19 also contributed to Andover’s win, scoring first place in the 2-Mile with a time of 11:16.91 minutes. Buehler said, “We set a hard pace and took advantage of our strength and fitness over [the other teams]. This fast pace, which we could handle, allowed us to pull away and sweep them in the 2-Mile.”

Henry Wakelin ’17 led Andover in the high and long jumps, scoring third place in the high jump with a score of 5’2” and third place in the long jump with a score of 17’0”. New to both of these events, Wakelin is looking to continue to improve and push himself more as the season progresses.

Wakelin said, “For long jump I fouled my last jump, so I didn’t get all three jumps in, and I thought I could do a little further. For long jump I haven’t practiced that much, it is my second time doing it, and I definitely did better this time. Our coach also helped me a lot with trying to get used to the new event.”

In Shot-Put, Johnny Rex ’17 came in first place and set a personal record with a score of 47’1”, and Tyler Craigwell ’18 came in third with a score of 39’2”. Rex said, “This time I really focused on lifting up instead of out and I forced myself to not go out of the circle, so I stayed in all six throws and didn’t foul. I just really focused on keeping my body back and keeping my head back until the very last second and rotating my foot throughout my whole throw.”

Andover has had a strong start in the first two meets and is expecting to improve as a team in future meets. Ben Zhang ’17 said, “For me and for almost everybody on the team, just being able to get that first meet out of the way, the nerves are gone and people are able to improve on their shortcomings from the past meet and pick one area and address it. I think a lot of kids are really happy with how they ran today, everyone on the team is really upbeat. I think everyone got times that they are really pleased with, so it is just going to get better from here.”

Andover will welcome Wilbraham in a rematch next Wednesday alongside Andover High.