Girls Track & Field Co-Captain Amelia Alvazzi ’26 has been running since elementary school. Coming to Andover as a new Upper, she competed in events like Mile Race, in which her personal record is 4:51.55, and the 2-Mile Race, where her fastest time stands at 10:25.07 — a 19th place finish at New Balance Nationals Indoor 2026.
Alvazzi shared the difference in running at Andover, where the typically individual nature of track turns into a community-oriented environment.
“I appreciate that at Andover, there’s a community associated with a sport that’s often so individual, and it’s a lot more motivating and accessible to achieve your goals when you have a group of people who are training at the same time every day, are also competing together, and give pep talks. There’s a lot more morale involved,” said Alvazzi.
One of Alvazzi’s goals is to bring joy into running and to practice every day. She reflected on her intentions as a Co-Captain.
“One of the things that I’d like to achieve as a Captain is to help people enjoy practice, come to practice, and enjoy every day. A huge part of results-oriented sports like track is your performance. For example, in sprints, the duration might be super short, but your time at a meet might define how you see yourself as a sprinter. What’s really important is loving the process and the journey because, in doing so, enjoying the everyday, taking things a little lighter, you’ll believe in your training and you’ll reap the rewards when it comes to the meet days,” said Alvazzi.
Adanna Obi ’29 described how Alvazzi interacts and supports the team.
“For the distance team, she’s really positive because they have really hard workouts, and people sometimes, if you have a bad workout, you’re not coming into the best mindset, or you don’t even really want to come to practice after having a long day, she’s just a really positive figure and makes sure that people feel really good. Even though it might be a hard day or something for her, she’s just very non sibi and focuses on making it so that other people feel good, even if she’s not feeling great herself,” said Obi.
Competing and training with distance runners, Alvazzi noted that her favorite part of running is meeting different types of people across event groups.
“I love talking to people from all different disciplines. Track is a bunch of different disciplines happening at once. So I’m talking to people who do throws and sprints, even though I do distance. I just love that everyone comes from different athletic backgrounds and has their own goals. The nature of it is just quite diverse. There’s always someone who’s super friendly and encouraging. I love being the head of service, a friendly face people know they can always turn to,” said Alvazzi.
Allysa Katana ’28 shared how Alvazzi inspired her not only through her support but also through her work ethic and achievements.
“I did Cross Country, Indoor Track [& Field], and Outdoor Track [& Field] with Amelia, and one word I used to describe her leadership is inspirational,” said Katana.
Katana continued, “Even though she encouraged me and congratulated me after I finished all my races, what inspired me the most about her was her ability to redefine limits, and seeing herself push harder and strive for bigger goals and personal bests inspired me to keep running. And she also made me realize that even if I failed or I didn’t reach what I wanted, I’d always have a supportive community to fall back on.”
Looking ahead, Alvazzi is committed to run at the Division I level at Columbia University.
