Disappointment filled the air this past Saturday for the Andover Boys Cross Country, as Andover finished seventh out of 14 teams at its final race at the Interschols Championship.
“The races simply didn’t go as we had hoped,” said Coach Domina. “The Exeter varsity team ran even more brilliantly than a week ago to win the championship decisively.”
Andover’s top runner, Michael Frasco ’12, finished fourth overall, behind the first place finish of Peter Geithner of Brunswick School and the second place finish of Exeter’s Keiran Scannell, whom Frasco had defeated earlier in the season in the team’s dual meet against Exeter. While Frasco’s performance was impressive, it came as a disappointment to a runner who had placed first in each of his meets to date.
Captain James Hamilton ’12 and Ian Whittall ’14 crossed the finish line together, placing second and third for Andover, respectively.
“One factor that affected many of the runners’ performances was the number of runners in the race,” said Whitall. “The number of runners made it impossible to run the most efficient and direct route you could. In fact, in my case, one person with metal-spiked shoes stomped on one of my feet, tearing a couple of holes in it and even injuring my foot.”
Although Andover lost by a significant margin, the team’s members were adamant that they had run a hard race.
Kian Ivey ’12 said, “After flying under the radar for much of the season, we had high hopes of making a splash at Interschols after a successful season of dual meets. Although we all ran hard races, that doesn’t always translate to success.”
Although the day was a tough one, Coach Domina looked at the experience positively. He said, “This fall [the runners] developed so well, both as individual runners and as a team, and they exceeded many people’s expectations of them. They went for it on Saturday, but a stronger team finish just wasn’t to be.”
Next year, Boys Cross Country looks to repeat its success in the regular season and finish stronger in the championship. The team is yet to elect its captain, who will need to lead strongly to accomplish this goal.
