Hailey Piasecki ’26 performs in pole vault event on Wednesday.
4/23: Andover: 185, Austin Prep: 124, Landmark: 17
Boys and Girls Outdoor Track & Field returned from a four-day weekend in a dominant showing, yielding personal bests among the majority of its athletes. Both the Boys and Girls teams, in collective points, bested their opponents, Austin Preparatory (Austin Prep) and Landmark, on April 23.
Since the season opened in unfavorable conditions, a highlight of the meet was warm weather. Caitlin Ly ’27 expressed how the weather raised morale, contributing to the better outcome.
“Fortunately, today was warm and sunny compared to the last meet, where it was super cold. This brought the team spirit up, as well as our performances. Overall, as a team we showed up today, and I look forward to seeing what’s to come as we look ahead to our bigger meets like Interschols and Andover/Exeter,” wrote Ly in an email to The Phillipian.
One standout performer was Yasin Andino ’27, who competed in the discus throw event. Andino threw a new personal record (PR) of 107’ 2”, improving by a massive 30-feet compared to his previous score.
“It [was] amazing. What a performance. Definitely my highlight of the day,” said Lincoln Tomlinson ’27.
On Wednesday, Ela Budzinski ’28, who usually competes in the 400-Meter Race, decided to shorten her racing distances. According to Ly, Budzinski raced strong times in the 100-Meters, 200-Meters, and 4×400-Meter Relay. Ly shared how even though the long weekend created complications for the team, Andover’s athletes still posted strong performances.
Ly said, “Despite the long weekend, we were able to get some good work in [on Tuesday] for our pre-meet. Some of us may have been feeling a bit tired after coming off the break, but by the time of the meet, pretty much everyone was regaining their energy, which led to our usual loud cheering and support. Performances had also improved significantly since the last meet, which shows that our hard work during practices is paying off.”
Similarly, Teddy Frangakis 27, a distance athlete, discussed how distance athletes stayed in shape throughout the long weekend.
“We had a training plan for the four-day weekend, so even when we were supposed to just rest, we were still training. We were still working on our time; we were still working on mainly some easy runs, but we did do some 400-Meter workouts. During the weekend, we were just always running,” said Frangakis.
Tomlinson expressed his appreciation for the strong community on the team. Despite the large number of athletes on the Track & Field team, the community remains connected and in high spirits.
“The team has a strong bond. If you see somebody on the track wearing an Andover singlet, you’re out there cheering. People I didn’t even know by name were cheering for me, and I was out there doing the same because you want to support your team. If they’re running by you and they’re wearing an Andover singlet, you’re out there cheering. Everyone was,” said Tomlinson.
The team will travel to Loomis Chaffee on May 3.
