Victoria Kadiri ’20 exploded off the blocks and sprinted her way to a third place finish in the 60-Meter Dash with a time of 7.91 seconds at the Usatf New England Championships. Kadiri was joined by other selected athletes from Andover Girls Indoor Track & Field to compete against other high school and college competitors this past Sunday.
The invitational meet took place at Harvard University, which featured a sloped-style collegiate indoor track with a straightaway inside the track, unlike the flat Snyder Center track.
Co-Captain Sadie Cheston-Harris ’20 noted that Andover was able to provide support for the entirety of the team despite being in a chaotic, packed environment with many other athletes.
“This meet was an invitational, so it wasn’t just high schoolers, and there were a ton of people from different schools, so it was really private and hard for one team to overwhelm a ton of the space. We had a space along the finish line, so everyone from Andover was cheering on everyone from our team as they were passing the finish line for all their races, which was really nice,” said Cheston-Harris.
A notable last-minute decision was to switch Esme Huh ’22 into the 4×400-Meter Relay after Tessa Conrardy ’20 had to step down due to a recent illness. According to Conrardy, Huh was able to fill the role and help carry the relay team to a second place finish.
“Esme actually subbed into the 4×4 last-minute, which was a really intense race just to add at the end of your meet. I was actually supposed to run the 4×4, but Coach Hession made a day-of call because I had been sick with pneumonia for three weeks. So Esme jumped in and ran the 4×4, which is a really big commitment, and she did really well,” said Conrardy.
Cheston-Harris explained that the lively atmosphere was able to push the final relay team to a strong finish.
“I was in the [4×400] along with Lillie [Cooper ’21], Athalia [Esty ’22], and Esme, and our team was cheering for us very loudly near the finish line, and we got second place,” said Cheston-Harris.
Kadiri, who will captain Andover Girls Outdoor Track & Field in the Spring, believes that the momentum and team connections will carry into the outdoor season this spring.
“Obviously, we have all gotten faster, but I think the team chemistry has taken us a step up and put us in a really good spot going into Outdoor and just continue to set the tone and really be one cohesive unit and cheer each other on as a team,” Kadiri said.
Editor’s Note: Lillie Cooper ’21 is a Sports Editor for The Phillipian.