Outdoor Track & Field Co-Captain Kishan Clarke ’26 has emerged as a reliable presence on the team and as a leader with a wealth of knowledge in sprinting. In Indoor Track & Field, he posted a time of 6.67 seconds in the 55-Meter Dash, a personal record and the team’s fastest in the 2025-2026 season. Last season in Outdoor Track & Field, Clarke finished the 100-Meter Dash in 11.25 seconds, a personal best and fastest time among Andover athletes.
As a Co-Captain, Clarke shared that he aims to lead by example, a style he learned from previous Co-Captains Emerson Kington ’24 and Russell Robinson ’25, to help his teammates push through their training sessions.
“I would say that track is a difficult sport in terms of mentality. It can be hard to go to practice each day knowing that it’s going to take a lot of physical toll to complete a workout. I look to the Captains before me and try to emulate what they [did], which was to lead by example,” said Clarke.
Clarke continued, “I remember when before I was a Captain, I looked at the Captains and every time there was a hard workout, either Emerson or Russell, who were previous Captains two years before me, would go to the workout head on, and they would never complain. So I try to emulate that lead-by-example attitude to show that you can get through this, and if you continue to work hard at track, you’ll see progress.”
Tiger Wang ’29 characterized Clarke as friendly, an attribute that encourages athletes to approach him.
“Every day during practice, he is just so nice and welcoming. And he is someone who is really approachable. I feel comfortable going up to him, asking him a question about what the sprinters are doing or about life in general,” said Wang.
Wang, who trains for distance events, also described Clarke, a sprinter, as a role model and praised the Co-Captain’s work ethic.
Wang said, “Kishan is a phenomenal sprinter who is really focused on what he’s doing, and as a freshman, I look up to him with his mentality and how he strives to be faster and how he’s so dedicated to the sport. So, [Clarke] is, in a way, a role model to me, even though we don’t do the same events.”
James Curley ’29 also pointed to Clarke’s leadership and energy during practices.
“Whenever we do hard workouts on the track, he would always be cheering for us. When we go by the sprinters, he’s just full of positive energy and he gives us more fuel to do what we need to do to get money in the bank. At the same time, he’s just a really chill and nice person in general,” said Curley.
Clarke detailed the lessons he learned reflecting on his captainship for Indoor Track & Field.
“I learned from being a Captain last term the importance of a Captain’s influence, meaning everything that a Captain does, a Captain has a lot of power to change the culture of the team. And I’ve learned to use my role for the betterment of the team,” said Clarke. “I found that if I started to complain about workouts, other people would do the same and think that that’s a reasonable thing to do. But if, like I said before, I take that headstrong attitude and I try to emulate what it means to be a good track athlete, that attitude will trickle down throughout the team. And I’ve learned to use that to my best advantage to help the team.”
