Though highlighted by a 4×200 meter record, Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field fell short to Exeter, losing 39-70. The team competed at home this past Wednesday in its final meet of the season.
According to Luke Williamson ’25, the team did not have any sort of strategy heading into the race, unlike Exeter.
“I don’t think we focus too much on that. It’s more about just running your best. There’s not a whole lot of like, go this time, speed up this time. Try and lock them out. Exeter actually does a lot of that. We don’t really like that; it’s kind of annoying, so we don’t want to do that,” Williamson said.
According to Alvin Liu ’24, the team was confident that it had a chance to win after barely loosing in the Ninth and Tenth grade meet in the week before. Williamson believed that the team truly put all its effort into each event and put on a strong display despite the outcome.
Liu said, “We actually thought we were pretty confident we could win because two weeks ago, we had a 9-10. We lost by like just a couple points. And we thought our Uppers were going to be able to like lift that up a bit, but turns out they had some pretty strong Uppers too. So yeah, not good for us.”
Williamson added, “I mean, we were feeling good. I think the boys had a good idea that they’re gonna lose since Exeter is really strong at cross country. They’re really fast. I don’t know, I think we were prepared for it. But we wanted to do our best. And just like put a dent in Exeter, and rack up some good points. So, I mean, we really tried. There was a lot of energy out there today. It gets us hyped up.”
According to Matt Leonard ’24, the high jumpers knew that Exeter was a strong team and mentally prepared beforehand. This motivated the Andover jumpers to reach their personal bests in the final meet.
“The team was excited heading into Andover/Exeter. We hadn’t had a meet in about two weeks, so there was a lot of time to train and improve in between meets. This meet was also our last of the season, so everyone wanted to perform their best and try to set personal records… The high jumpers did well performing under pressure. Going into today, we knew the Exeter jumpers were going to be good, and their opening heights proved they were going to be a tough opponent. Despite that, though, the other boy jumpers all set personal records today and ended off the season on a high note,” said Leonard.
According to Liu and Williamson, the team energy was exemplary as the entire team lined the sides of the track.
“The energy in general was great. I mean, we knew that they were rivals, and we were the only ones there. And we had around a 100 or more kids. So it was just good to have teammates there to cheer on us. It just felt good,” said Liu.
Williamson added, “I think we cheer for each other really well—we support each other really well. Sometimes for track meets, when it goes on hours and hours, it can be difficult to keep the energy going. When your race is done, you’re kind of ready to go. But I think we did a great job of keeping the energy up. So I was really happy about that. I can really feel it when I was running.”
