Myra Bhathena ’22 raced to a personal best and broke her own school record in the 55 meter hurdles in a time of 8.70 at the yearly Andover/Exeter Indoor track meet this Wednesday. Bhathena helped the Andover Girls Indoor Track & Field secure a 65-44 victory over Phillips Exeter Academy to end its regular season.
Following the lead of Bhathena, many of the team members set personal bests in the team’s strong performance against Exeter, according to Izzy Alvarez ’23.
“The team performed very very well. I keep hearing about people who are getting PR’s, [and] I think that’s very good. Everyone is giving it their all today… Because of that, the team is doing very well today,” said Alvarez.
The excitement of the Andover/Exeter rivalry played a major role in the team’s ability to compete and run its best in the meet, according to Alvarez.
“Because of the Andover/Exeter rivalry, the energy is really high, and I really believe that Andover rose to the challenge. This whole season we’ve been working really hard and that really showed during this meet,” said Alvarez.
Although scores have not been released, it is clear how close in score the teams were, according to Natasha Muromcew ’22.
“Our captain, Sadie Cheston Harris ’20, came up to me and said she was really proud of me for that one point [I scored]. So I’m guessing we’re really evenly matched right now, so I am pretty happy… The coaches told us that every single place matters in the race, and if you can beat someone by the tiniest bit, it really can make a big difference for the entire team,” said Muromcew.
According to Captain Sadie Cheston Harris ’20, the team was prepared to compete in this final meet because of its dedicated training throughout the season.
“I’m so incredibly proud of all of the girls on the team, specifically with the way everyone showed up and performed their hardest against Exeter today, but also just in general of the hard work and positive attitudes everyone’s shown throughout the season,” wrote Cheston Harris in an email to The Phillipian.
Each member’s consistent level of performance will help the team succeed through invitationals in the post-season, according to Muromcew and Alvarez.
“The team is really big this year, that’s new. This whole program is newer, especially since we have the new facility. Honestly, a lot of the team is really young. The fact that we are able to perform so strongly is so impressive,” said Muromcew.
Alvarez added, “We still don’t know who’s going to invitationals. I think that Andover is really strong over all—everyone has a very consistent level of running and because of that, no matter who goes, Andover will do great.”
A portion of the team will race again on Friday at the Boston University Valentine Invitational.
