After a well-earned second-place finish at the New England Interscholastic Championships last spring, Girls Track returns this year strong, conditioned, and ready to win. Boys Track, despite a difficult sixth-place, has gained many new legs and hopes to reestablish its dominance in New England. Last spring, the girls recorded a successful 5-1 record, suffering their only loss to Exeter early in the season. But at Andover tasted revenge at Andover/Exeter, winning in a thrilling meet by just three points. This year appears no less promising. Although the loss of invaluable javelin throwers Akosua Oforiwa-Ayim ’07 and Maura Mulroy ’07 will be felt, Sadiqa Farrow ’09 will step up as the leader in both that event and the shotput along with Meghan McCafferty ’10, who holds the junior class record, Nayab Khan ’08, and Hailee Minor ‘08. Alexis Dawkins ’10– who nearly broke the lower indoor record for the long jump– and currently holds the junior class record for the triple jump will be instrumental in those events. Captain Simone Hill ’08 will once again lead the sprinters in the 100 and 200m. The girl’s distance crowd, with the exception of last year’s captain Abby King ’08, has only gained talented runners this season. Led by Berol Dewdney ’09, Aubrey Zimmerling ’09, Breezy Jordan ’09, Georgina Norton ’09, Anna Fang ’10 and track newcomers Stephanie Moroney ’09 and Abby Levene ’09, Andover distance hopes to continue sweeping the competition. Andover Boys Track hopes to come back stronger than ever in the coming weeks. But the team acknowledges that it has many gaps to fill. The absence of Addison Godine ’07 and Alex Hugon ’07 will be detrimental to the distance squad, but new Lower and indoor MVP star Charles Ganner ’10, Eli Howe ’09 and Phil Hofer ’10, the boys will boast a strong force. Andover Track opens its season this Saturday at home with a scrimmage against Andover and Reading High Schools.
