Wednesday 1/17 –
Andover: 86.5
Governor’s: 49.5
Wilbraham & Monson: 31
Deerfield: 19
On Sunday, eight members of the Andover Girls Indoor Track and Field team competed at the UMass Flagship Invitational. On Wednesday, the team hosted Governor’s, Deerfield, and Landmark School, taking first place by 37 points.
According to Anya Budzinski ’26, teammates participated in intense workouts in preparation for the UMass Flagship Invitational. The meet was held at the TRACK at New Balance in Boston, Massachusetts.
“Leading up to the race, the group of people that ran in the meet today did a really hard workout on Tuesday that definitely got us ready. It was 4 x 250[-Meters] and then 150[-Meters]. So it was really difficult but it definitely got us ready for the meet this weekend,” said Budzinski, who raced the 1-Mile on Sunday.
Storrie Kulynych-Irvin PG’24, who ran the 3000-Meter, commended the efforts of Emma Hagstrom ’25 and Budzinski, who not only excelled on the track but also provided enthusiastic support for their teammates. Hagstrom, specifically, set a new 1000-Meter school record with a time of 3:01.50.
Kulynych-Irvin said, “I think almost everyone had a good day especially for it being an early season meet where we are not trying to peak yet. I thought my teammate Emma went even faster than she did previously in the 1K. That was really cool to watch. I also watched Anya run the Mile and she had a solid race so that was definitely motivating as I was getting ready to race.”
Despite it being her first race of the season, Budzinski felt that her performance surpassed her initial expectations. Using this race as a baseline, she aims to enhance her skills through practice, with the goal of continually improving her times throughout the remainder of the season.
Budzinki said, “My race was good, I ran the mile. It wasn’t the time that I wanted, but it was my first race of the season so it was good for the training that I had done and I’m definitely looking to improve throughout the season.”
Kulynych-Irvin expressed that while team members might have had individual objectives on Sunday, it is crucial for the collective team to collaborate and provide mutual support in pursuit of their respective goals.
“I think as a team we have a lot of people who are working on different things right now. We have some people on the girls team who have a lot of speed, some people who are coming back from injury so I think everyone is focused on something slightly different. For me, I’m just focused on continuing to try to stay consistent and keep a slightly higher volume of training but I think the more we are able to train together as a group we can kind of work to push each other to improve our weaknesses,” said Kluynych-Irvin.
According to Caitlin Ly ’27, Wednesday’s meet proved to be a major success for many athletes on the team. She specifically highlighted Wylie Roossien ’26’s win in the 600-Meter race, where she broke the Lower class record with a time of 1:42.46.
“I think the meet went pretty well today and the team atmosphere was very high and it was really exciting to cheer for everyone because it was a home meet… people ran some impressive times… I think that Wylie did really well in the meet today. She did the girls 600-Meter and she ran a pretty impressive time that was two seconds away from the school record,” said Ly.
As for her own events, Ly placed second in the 55-Meter Dash with a time of 7.42, setting a new Junior class record by 0.39 seconds.
Ly said, “I did the 55-Meter and high jump… For high jump, it was not my best day, but I finished with 4 feet 6 inches and I was proud of my other high jump teammates because they also got some good PRs.”
Girls Indoor Track and Field will host Lawrence High School, Austin Preparatory School, and North Reading next Wednesday.
