Langan Garrett ’24 placed sixth in the 55-Meter Hurdles against Andover High School with a time of 11.19.
Girls Indoor Track
Wednesday 12/13 – Andover: 60, Andover High School: 38.5
Boys Indoor Track
Wednesday 12/13 – Andover: 49, Andover High School: 51
Andover Indoor Track and Field’s official home opener on Wednesday resulted in a win for the Girls team and a close loss for the Boys team. Andover faced off against its local neighbors, Andover High School (Andover High)
The Big Blue brought its cheers to the Snyder Center for an explosive start to the season. High-jumper Kamen Kaleb ’25 spoke about the high energy brought by the team.
“The environment was electric, there was so much energy in the building. I feel like the energy level that we reached is not really something that happens until around mid to late season, when we have developed a lot of momentum behind us; but to see that we had so much energy in the first meet, it means it’s going to be a wonderful season,” said Kaleb.
Distance-runner Jakob Kuelps ’25 shared similar sentiments with Kaleb, discussing the significance of the competition and sportsmanship of the meet.
“Hosting a home meet obviously is amazing. You have faculty, friends, and other people…or people from your Andover community come out and support you, which is great. Also, considering that Andover High is so close to us, we had a great showing from parents as well, which added to the amazing energetic atmosphere. They’re our neighbors, as Coach [Keri] Lambert says, we share the town of Andover with them,” said Kuelps.
Kuelps used the team’s energy to win the 2-Mile race. Kuelps spoke on the results and how he plans to work with his team to grow as an athlete.
Kuelps said, “I ran around 10 [minute] 30 [seconds], which is four seconds off my [personal record], PR, which is good to start with. Last season, I started off with 10 [minute] 40 [seconds] in the home opener meet, so it definitely shows that my fitness has improved over the past year. I think there’s still a lot of work to do but the season has just started, so I think I speak for myself, and also for the team here, that I am looking forward to growing a lot over the season as athletes and as teammates.”
In the final individual event of the day, distance-runner Emma Hagstrom ’25 broke the 1000-Meter Girls school record by one second, finishing with a time of 3:03.25. Setting the tone in the team’s first full-team meet, Hagstrom described the team’s goals for the rest of the season.
“For the season, me and some of my peers are trying to do a group DMR (Distance Medley Relay) for the girls team, and see if we can qualify for Nationals in that event. I definitely hope to get faster over the course of the season. I think [for] a lot of people it’s just a season opener, so it was fun to see what everyone could do,” said Hagstrom.
Despite coming out of a recent injury, Kaleb still placed second in the High Jump with a mark of 5-10.00, falling to an Andover High opponent by two inches.
Kaleb said, “I am pretty happy with my performance. I’m coming off of an ankle injury from last term, so being able to recover from that as well as being able to reach where my ceiling was last spring, I think that’s pretty good. During this season, I aspire to break the Upper high jump record, which is around six feet. I’m pretty close to it now, so I think I’ll be able to get it maybe within the next two meets.”
Andover Indoor Track and Field will be resuming its season on the weekend of January 14 at UMass Amherst.
