The Andover Boys Cross Country team braved the rain and mud to race against Cushing, Dexter, Exeter, Loomis Chaffee and NMH for their first home race of the season: The Andover Developmental Invitational. The runners entered the race with the mentality to beat Exeter, something that had been stressed in their pre-race preparations for the entire week. To Andover, none of the other teams posed a serious threat. “We prepared with Exeter in mind, thinking that we knew their top runner, Miles Richardson, would be close to the front of the race. Our plan was to think of this as a dual meet and aim for five of the next six places after Richardson. It turned out we took six of seven, proving that the race was a complete success,” said head coach Jonathan Stableford. However, very unexpectedly, Loomis Chaffee’s third, fourth and fifth runners all had very strong races, creating much more competition for the Andover boys than anticipated. This invitational was not scored, but had it been scored, Andover would have won by ten points, according to coaches who supervised the event. The final results: Andover alum Chris Donnais in first, Tully Hannon, a Loomis Chaffee post-graduate who previously ran at Avon Old Farms, in second, Richardson in third, Renat Zalov ’11, with a time of 16:32, came in fourth, another Exeter runner came in fifth with two Loomis Chaffee runners following close behind in sixth and seventh. Then, five Andover runners all came in within a seven second span.Tim McLaughlin ’11 finished strong with a time of 17:19. Matt Appleby ’11, who kept with McLaughlin the entire race, finished the race in 17:20. Nick Kearns ’11 also came in with a time of 17:20, while James Hamilton ’12 followed close behind with a time of 17:23. Patrick Wolber ’11 then crossed the finish line with a time of 17:26. Chris Batchelder ’11 and Billy Muran ’10 both tied for 24th, earning very respectable times of 18:42. Although Zalov was the top Andover finisher, it was McLaughlin who led the race into the Sanctuary. “Tim McLaughlin led all the Andover runners in fourth place overall, with the pack just a few steps behind him amid a hoard of runners from several schools,” said Stableford. Interestingly, Zalov and Hannon were not among these hoard of runners at the lead, but were holding back, showing a lot of improvement since the fast start of the Canterbury race. However, Hannon and Zalov gradually moved their way up in the standings. When they left the Sanctuary leading into the Knoll, Zalov was in second with Hannon on his heels. Hannon and Richardson passed him on the lawn, and Zalov finished the race in a solid fourth place. The pack had an amazing finish, all within seven seconds of each other behind Zaloy. “We are a week closer to being the kind of team we can be, but we have work to do to gain both speed and lasting strength. Zalov has shown great speed in two races, but it does not quite last for the whole 5K. At Canterbury he began to lose his grip in the third mile; this weekend it happened only in the final quarter-mile. We like the direction this is going. We also like the way our pack is getting faster,” reflected Stableford. Although this invitational was not scored, many people achieved personal bests at the meet, which is a positive step in the right direction for Andover’s Cross Country Team as it heads into its next meet against Choate this Saturday.
