Andover Boys Cross Country took on Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH), Choate, Deerfield, and Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter) on Saturday, edging out Exeter for first place by just two points. Tam Gavenas ’25 and Max Huang ’24 led the team on NMH’s course, sealing the top two individual finishes, respectively.
Going into the race, Head Coach Patrick Rielly gave a pep talk to the team, informing them of the difficult terrain of the NMH course. In spite of the technical course, Andover was confident in its preparation, noted Jakob Kuelps ’25, who finished seventh overall.
“We were pretty nervous going into the race. Coach Rielly had told us that NMH was the ‘blood and mud’ course, meaning it is very difficult. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we were also confident in the hard work we have put in this season. We were ready to tackle it, even though we knew it would be hard. We were really focused and ready to all do our respective part in the race for the team,” said Kuelps.
In the week leading up to the race, the team focused on different fitness strategies as well as recovery. Placing sixteenth, Robert Budzinski ’26 noted how these workouts helped with the team’s success.
Budzinski said, “On Monday, we did a hill workout in the [Cochran Bird] Sanctuary, which is our home course… We ended up doing a full [5K’s worth] of 5K effort running on hills, which really helped us to prepare for the hilly terrain on the course at NMH. In addition to the 5K pace reps, we did a fast finish which helped us practice finishing fast on tired legs… The rest of the week was really focused on recovery and making sure our legs were really fresh going into the race.”
Eighth-place finisher Luke Williamson ’25 mentioned previous preparations that had helped the team feel confident on the NMH course, aside from the Sanctuary practices. Other courses had also helped the team to maneuver hills and pace themselves well.
Williamson said, “Our team is very strong with the rolling hills, because the whole race is like, you just got to keep working up the hills. There’s never an off moment. You get some downhills, but you always go straight back into the uphills, and I feel like we’ve been ready for that.”
According to Kuelps, a key factor in the team’s victory was its ability to stay composed when competing against historically-dominant opponents.
Kuelps said, “We all had great mental resilience and competed really well with the other teams in the race, especially Exeter, so we could place as high as possible. Our mental strength was what carried us in this race and helped us to get the win.”
Andover Boys Cross Country will host Exeter on Saturday.
