On Sunday, Captain-to-be Peter McCarthy ’07 ran two personal bests in the 400m and the 200m with times of 56.54 and 25.70 as the Andover Boys Track team traveled once again to the Harvard indoor track in Cambridge, this time for the USA Track and Field-New England Championships. Andover did not enter as a team and instead focused on individual performances to cap off the season. The fast track and added competition of a big meet helped many achieve personal records. In the 400m, Merzudin Ibric ’06 was seeded in the first heat and won, winning the meet in a landslide. Having never run under 51 seconds before, Ibric threw down a 49.37 to beat the nearest competitor (from Wheaton College) by .22 seconds. Next for Andover was McCarthy in 34th overall. McCarthy said, “Coming back from being sick, I was thrilled to run the way I did and even more thrilled to be named captain. I can’t wait for next year and beating Exeter. My goal is to go undefeated.” Exeter, which has been Andover’s biggest competition in the recent past, including Spring Interschols, had four runners in after Ibric, but none of them finished within even two seconds. This bodes well for the outdoor campaign. In the 60m, Luinis Tejada ’08 was first for Andover with a time of 7.47, followed by Jon Figueroa ’06 at 7.63. Alex McHale ’09, Helal Syed ’07, and Teddy Louis ’09 rounded off the Andover squad. The 60m hurdles scholastic was split from the open race, and in the scholastic event, Jason Soule ’06 took second with a time of 8.49, just .15 seconds from first place. Justin Chew ’07 (10.23) took fifth and Chris Han ’06 (10.36) finished sixth. Tejada finished first for Andover in the 200m in 23.71, good enough for 15th overall. Soule finished next in 19th at 23.89 and Figueroa was 35th at 25.06. The distance group also ran some good times though not as many people went under five minutes for the mile as was hoped. Mike Discenza ’09 led the way for the Andover milers with a 4:39.42 mile, which put him in 29th place. This showing improved on his freshman indoor record and even bettered the previous Lower record of 4:39.6. Kentaro Watari ’07 came in next in 32nd place with a time of 4:41.44, also a personal record. Only two others went under five minutes: Eli Howe ’09 and Dave Wilson ’09. All were seeded in the 4:40 heat except Howe who had to contend in the next heat down, leaving him with less people to run with and a lack of reliable runners to key off of. He still, however, managed a personal record. The only field event which Andover took part in was the shot put. Joe O’Hern ’07 competed in the scholastic event (as opposed to the open) and came away with second place with a 44-foot throw. Two of the biggest performers on the team this year were not present at the meet Sunday. Mario Noyola ’06 was sick in Isham and could not compete in the pole vault. Greg Hsu ’06, also absent, was attending a church retreat over the weekend. This meet served as the last competition of the indoor season and the final attempt at bettering marks. Said Watari, “Coach Stableford told us all we needed to do was run hard for about 4 minutes and 40 seconds and then we wouldn’t have to run again. So that’s what we did.” Although the indoor season is over, almost all of the Andover athletes will compete for the outdoor track team on its quest for another New England Championship, having won four out of the past five years.
