Sports Winter Sports Winter Track & Field

Win Over Exeter Marks End of Undefeated Season For Boys Indoor Track

Noah Ward ’17 shattered the previous Shot Put record of 55 feet 8 inches with a throw of 63 feet.

Aggressively whipping his body around his pivot foot, Noah Ward ’17 pushed the shot through the air, watching it fly and bounce over the boundary at the far end of the gym. After realizing it had gone over 63 feet, Ward celebrated his record shattering throw by running and sliding across the floor. Ward’s performance contributed to  Andover Boys Indoor Track & Field’s 53.5-41.5 victory over Phillips Exeter Academy in the last meet of the season on Wednesday.

Ward said, “I was working hard the past two weeks. Coach told me some new drills to do to get in the right positions, and it all just came together for this meet. There’s always a lot of hype in the Andover-Exeter games, and not letting the adrenaline take over and just staying calm and relaxed is the key.”

In the 50-Yard Dash Post-Graduate Will Sirmon ’17 was a standout, coming in second place with a time of 5.87 seconds, losing by only .04 seconds to Exeter’s fastest runner.

In the 300-Meter Dash, Andover secured the top two places, with Andrei Dumitrescu ’18 coming in first place in 36.19 seconds. In second place, Captain Will Hartemink ’17 finished with a time of 36.4 seconds. Michael McCullom ’18 also secured a second place win for Andover in the 50-Meter Hurdles, with a time of 7.14 seconds.

Dumitrescu wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “The Exeter meets are definitely the most fun, and both teams definitely showed up to win today. What I noticed today is that everyone actually stayed until the end of the meet, which was very long, and everyone was cheering on every event. It was quite inspiring. Personally I just stuck to my routines and even though I was really nervous I just ran my race and I ended up winning. I got a personal record in both my events, the 300-Yard, and the 4×440-Yard, and I guess it really came down to my technique.”

In the distance events, Giacomo Marino ’18 placed first in the 1-Mile with a time of 4:36.9, setting a personal record. In the 2-Mile, Jacob Buehler ’19 finished in second place with a time of 10:37.6. Sam Tobin ’18 also ran a strong third-place finish in the 2-Mile with a time of 10:41.7.

Marino said, “I stayed in the race even though it went out pretty fast. Exeter’s number one guy ran a really competitive first half mile. At the end their second guy passed me and that pushed me to stay with him, then I kicked it at the end and was able to win. We did a variety of workouts both working on endurance and speed, and together they contributed to a great last race of the season against Exeter.”

Buehler said, “It helped to have teammates who were cheering you on and supporting you in the 2-Mile. I discussed the strategy with the coaches before the meet, and just stuck to it.”

Henry Wakelin ’17 and Rohan Lewis ’17 led Andover in the High Jump, securing first and second place respectively with a height of 5 feet 4 inches. Wakelin edged out Lewis by faulting on fewer jumps.

Andover swept in the Shot Put which contributed a large portion of the team’s final score. After Ward, Johnny Rex ’17 threw 47 feet 7 inches and Tyler Craigwell ’18 threw 40 feet.

Andover ends its undefeated season with a hard-fought win against Exeter, boding well for the beginning of the spring track season.