In the first meet in over a month for Andover Girls Indoor Track and Field, Tess Lagerquist ’24 managed to match her personal record in pole vault despite in a meet that reflected a tired team in the middle of the season. Through this fatigue, Andover defeated Governor’s 91-30.
According to Lagerquist, despite performing well in recent practice sessions, she felt nerves that come with every meet. Ultimately, she said her teammates’ support pulled her through the meet to help her match her personal record in pole vault.
“I was kind of confident because I’ve been doing pretty well in practice, but at a meet, I always get super nervous and I always feel pretty nauseous, just in general from anxiety. So I wouldn’t say that I was super confident, but I was mostly just like, alright, I’m going to do this. I’m going to try my best and we’ll see how it goes… The energy at the meet, like, everyone cheering for everyone is super infectious, and I couldn’t imagine doing it in a silent room or just like, without my friends cheering me on,” said Lagerquist.
According to Abbie Cheng ’23, the new pole vaulters have picked up the sport quickly and learned both physical and mental aspects of pole vaulting.
Cheng said, “Most of the people who start pole vaulting are new to the sport and they’re able to get a grasp of not only the sport but also the nuances behind the mental challenge as well as the physical. So I feel like they’ve done a great job with that and I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do with the first meet for some of them.”
This supportive atmosphere among the pole vault team carried onto the meet on Wednesday, according to Caroline Ho ’22. The team encourages an atmosphere in which experienced pole vaulters help new pole vaulters transition into the sport.
Ho said, “It’s a very, I guess relaxed and supportive group of people because it’s a very tight knit group so I think everyone is kind of like pushing each other to do better and the more experienced athletes will always try to help the newer athletes and I think that’s something that’s really nice about it and there’s also like a wide range of athletes over different grades.”
According to Ho, the team will use Wednesday’s meet as a place to improve upon for the upcoming Nepsac meet after a long hiatus.
“I hope that I’ll personally do better and I think most people are really trying to get personal best and do better. I think this meet has set a good benchmark so that people are setting goals to do better in this upcoming meet and I think that’s good. The only issue is hopefully we’ll rest enough before that so we’re not too tired for it but I think we’ll be fine. It’s going to be exciting. Like this one was pretty small so I hope that there are more athletes there,” said Ho.
Andover’s next Nepsac meet will take place in the Snyder Center this Saturday.
