In a lively and energetic all-lowerclassmen meet, Andover Boys Indoor Track and Field emerged with dominant performances in several events. With 109 points, Andover defeated Austin Preparatory School (Austin Prep), Landmark, and Governor’s, but fell short to Phillips Academy Exeter (Exeter) by 12 points.
Despite not competing in the meet, Co-Captain Daniel Bae ’23 traveled to Exeter to support the team. Bae commended younger teammates for their determination and numerous personal records (PRs)
“I mean, you could look at the score and see we got second place, but really I think that is really representative of performance because we had big PRs from a lot of people. And I think they all handled the first time going to an away meet for most of them really well,” said Bae.
Will Ware ’26 highlighted the performances of teammates in the Two-Mile race. With a time of 9:32.02, Tam Gavenas ’25 broke the meet and Lower class record.
“Tam’s Two-Mile was really impressive… And so was David Song [’26]’s Two-Mile… The Two-Mile is a very challenging event, so I thought that was cool how they were able to do it very fast and just kind of muscle through it, and they did very well in that,” said Ware.
Tianyi Gu ’25 believed the meet was a good opportunity for the lowerclassmen to compete against others of similar age, allowing some events to be highly competitive. Arun Kapoor ’25 edged out an Austin Prep runner by just 1.31 seconds to take the win in the 1000-Meter race.
“Whereas previously it was harder to be quite as competitive, now that you’re racing against people that are generally closer to age and your level, it ends up having a lot of tight races. It’s also cool to get to know the lowerclassmen athletes from other schools,” said Gu.
Similarly, Ware was grateful for the chance to compete with others more similar to his skill level, which led to a PR in the One-Mile. Ware noted that the competition allowed him to push himself harder.
“Racing people who are a little bit more your level is just a lot more fun and challenges you even a little bit more, so I think there were a lot of PRs just because of that reason. There are people around you who have similar times as yours, and kind of pushing up against those kinds of people was a lot of fun, and it was a good challenge,” said Ware.
Though changes in the practice schedule made it harder to ensure adequate meet preparation, Gu emphasized that team members worked to take advantage of whatever time they had. Gu also appreciated the advice from coaches in the days leading up to the meet.
“It was tough because Monday was Head of School Day, so in terms of preparing for the meet there was still optional practice, but that was slightly difficult because it was less like structured preparation time. But other than that, the coaches did a really good job of preparing us for the events that we’d be running and giving tips on technique and form and also training our speed and endurance based on what we’ve had to improve on,” said Gu.
Looking to Saturday’s meet against various NEPSAC schools, the team looks to compete in new relays, such as the Distance Medley Relay and Sprint Medley Relay. According to Bae, the team will be focused on preparing for the relays, in addition to ensuring adequate recovery from Wednesday’s meet.
“Aside from just the normal technical stuff, we’re going to work really, really hard on relay exchanges, running curves. The events we’re running on Saturday are slightly different, so we have to talk a little bit about pacing. But other than that we’re going to take the next few days kind of light,” said Bae.
Andover Boys Indoor Track and Field will be hosting the NEPSTA All-Comers meet on Saturday.
