In the last few yards of the 50-Yard Dash, David Onabanjo ’18 pushed past his competitor from Governor’s Academy to secure first place and set a new personal record (PR) with a time of 5.98 seconds. Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field came out with a strong win on Wednesday, beating Governor’s, Wilbraham & Monson, Marianapolis, and Hyde 141-36-37-8-6, respectively.
Onabanjo said, “Even though I was hurt today, I think that one thing I did well was running through the finish line and finishing strong. The first few steps have been rough for me this whole year, and I just go as fast as I can, but I am trying to learn how to make each step more purposeful, in terms of gaining speed and building speed for the last 10 to 20 yards or so.”
Following Onabanjo, Post-Graduate Will Sirmon ’17 secured second place for Andover in the 50-Yard Dash with a time of 6.03 seconds.
In the 300-Yard Dash, Andover secured four of the five places on the podium. Andrei Dumitrescu ’18 came in first place with a time of 36.34 seconds, setting a new PR. Following Dumitrescu was Captain Will Hartemink ’17, who finished in second place with a time of 36.87 seconds. Mike McCullom ’18 came in fourth with a time of 37.07 seconds, and Rohan Lewis ’17 finished in fifth with a time of 38.15 seconds.
Dumitrescu said, “I think my start was really good… In practice in the past couple of weeks we have been practicing sprinting and floating to conserve energy, which really helped in this meet.”
In the long distance events, Giacomo Marino ’18 was a standout, coming in first place in the 1-Mile with a time of 5:01.0 minutes and first place in the 2-Mile with a time of 10:32.0 minutes.
Marino said, “We did some hard workouts in the days leading up to this meet, just trying to get ready for the end of the season, for [Phillips Exeter Academy] and the final Harvard meet. We have been doing harder workouts, which I think helped me in this meet and will help me in future races. We did some speed workouts which helped my quickness in the race and improving my 400 splits.”
Jacob Buehler ’19 placed second in the 2-Mile with a time of 10:40.0 minutes, and Nate Goldthwaite ’18 finished third with a time of 11:00.0 minutes. Alex Fleury ’20 also ran a strong first-place finish in the 1,000-Yard Dash with a time of 2:41.0 minutes.
Henry Wakelin ’17 led Andover in the High Jump while Myers Hogan ’19 led the team in the Long Jump. Wakelin finished in third place in the High Jump with a height of 5’ 2” and fourth place in the Long Jump with a distance of 16’ 9”. Hogan placed second in the Long Jump with a 17’ 9’’ leap, marking another PR for Andover.
Wakelin said, “Our coach taught us new steps this week. Last time I kept faulting because I kept jumping from the wrong spot, but this week I managed to jump from the right spot, but I think adjusting to the new steps prevented me from getting a PR.”
In the Shot Put, Noah Ward ’17 placed first with a distance 54’ 6” and was followed by Johnny Rex ’17 who threw 47’ 4.5”.
Andover has not lost a single meet this season, and the team continues to prepare for upcoming meets culminating in a showdown against Exeter.
