Five of Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field’s remaining eight meets will take place at the Snyder Center.
With Tam Gavenas ’25 breaking a class record and Joshua Park ’22 claiming the 55-meter hurdle record, Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field found individual success this past Wednesday at the Nepsta meet at home. Although it was an unscored meet, Andover still broke four records.
In particular, Emerson Kington ’24 highlighted Park’s and Kiefer Ebanks ’23’ performances in the meet.
“Kiefer was in my 4x[200-meter] relay. And he did really well. He caught up to the person that he was running against and passed them and gave us the advantage so we could finish off the race strong. And Josh set a school record,” said Kington.
According to Nigel Savage ’23, the team’s success can be attributed to the energy of the team, which pushes athletes to achieve new personal bests. However, Savage stated that the team could improve on finishing strong and retaining the starting energy until the end.
Savage said, “As a team, we’re really firing on all cylinders… I think that’s something that we do really, really well as a team, we’re really working well on pushing each other and making each other better teammates. I think one thing that we can work on, individually and as a team as a whole is finishing, because we start off really, really well. But sometimes at the end of the race, like someone who didn’t run, like the better race may finish right at the end, and beat you. And that happened a lot actually, at this last bit.”
During Wednesday’s meet against Lawrence High School and North Reading High School appeared, many individuals set records and personal bests. Co-Captain Nick Koobatian ’22 calls the team a supportive one that encourages people to display their efforts to push forward.
“[The team has] continued to be supportive since the beginning of the year, and something to work on. I just say everyone has personal records, P.R.s. And everyone’s individually trying to push them up. So I just think that continuing to support each other to get individual PRs and see how far we can push ourselves, in a safe manner. Like as a team supporting one another during that process is pivotal.” said Koobatian.
Running the 1000-meters, Gavenas strode forward against his opponents overtaking them in the last lap, finishing with 2:42:83, 11 seconds ahead of the previous record. Gavenas described the immense thrill he experienced during the race as a contributing factor to his success.
“It was crazy because I usually don’t say this, but I got runner’s high in the middle of the race. And I just wanted to go all out. The coach had told me to pass the guy and I didn’t know when [and] what time to go. And these guys were huge. They’re like 6’2”, one of the guys, I was racing. And he just was right in front of me. And I just tried to stick behind and then when Coach told me to just pass, I’m just like ‘Why don’t I go all out? What’s the worst that could happen?’ I just kind of pushed it and pushed it… You run really hard. And you just keep going, and it’s just like this amazing, amazing feeling,” said Gavenas.
Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field will prepare for an upcoming home meet against Marianapolis, Governor’s, Wilbraham, and Phillips Exeter Academy on Wednesday.
