With an even stride and a steady pace, Anoush Shehadeh ’15 crossed the finish line with a course record of 17:38 to capture first place at the NEPSAC Division I Championships (Interschols).
Shehadeh’s victory propelled Andover to an award-winning third place finish out of 14 teams. The top four teams earn awards from the NEPSAC Council.
Shehadeh bested her old record of 18:04 on the St. Paul’s School course and finished 42 seconds ahead of the second place runner. This was the second consecutive year that Shehadeh finished in first place.
“Individually, I was really happy to be 26 seconds faster on the St. Paul’s course than I was earlier this season, and I was really glad that I was able to maintain a sizable gap between second place and myself,” said Shehadeh, who is undefeated in her high school cross country career.
“It was great to be in top three again and continue Andover’s long tradition of performing well at Interschols. It also meant a lot to watch our Captain, Graydon [Tope ’14], go up to the stage and get our third place team plaque for us,” said Qiqi Ren ’15.
Peyton McGovern ’16 and Ren finished 7th and 28th respectively to round out Andover’s top three. Shehadeh and McGovern will advance to the New Balance New England Eastern Regionals, where they will compete to attend the New Balance Nationals.
“As a team, our goal going into Interschols was to keep up with the solid performances we’ve had so far. We were a really deep team with a lot of tight packs, which I think showed through in the race,” said Sharon Zhang ’16.
Sofia Barbosa ’16 finished fourth for Andover with a personal record of 21:04. Sharon Ruth Platt ’15, Zhang and Alana Gudinas ’16 finished with times of 21:09, 21:15 and 21:23, respectively, to round out Andover’s top seven.
“This year, I think we had a really strong team, and throughout the season we kept seeing how our Varsity packs kept getting closer and closer together. I think that, at Interschols, having a tight pack was really important for us to do in order to place, and we truly accomplished that,” said Barbosa.
One of the reasons for Andover’s success on the course was its experience on the St. Paul’s course. The team defeated St. Paul’s earlier in the season 27-28 on October 9.
Shehadeh added, “I was so proud of us on Saturday. Our team is so united and strong, and we pulled together, and our third place finish came from nothing more than all the hard work we’ve put in.”
Looking forward, Andover will look to use its highlights this season to improve on its 5-1 record and capture the Championships next season.
McGovern said, “This year’s performance was excellent as a team. We really bonded. We have had some races where our second through seventh were a minute apart from each other. That’s a great statistic because it shows that we have people working as packs and running better times. Our record showed how strong [we were] and how much depth we had.”
