Captain Alex Fleury ’20 dashed passed a Phillips Exeter Academy runner in the 800-Meter Race, beating him by .2 seconds and winning the race for Andover this past Sunday in the Usatf New England Championships held at Harvard.
The team competed against several other Nepsta schools, club programs, collegiate programs, and other unattached athletes, and still managed to reach its greatest potential, according to Fleury and Glen Cahilly ’23.
Fleury said, “Everybody performed really well, especially against a different environment of competition that we’re not used to. Club runners, club throwers, club sprinters, a few colleges mixed in there, Exeter was there, they’re obviously very good, and there were a lot of other unattached high school athletes. I think that everyone responded really well to the level of competition and did really well in their events.”
Cahilly added, “We all raced really [strongly], I’d say especially the sprinters. There were a ton of [personal records] and a ton of super good rankings.”
The team’s success at Harvard, as well as throughout the rest of the season, can be attributed to its strong leaders and coaches, according to Fleury and Cahilly.
Fleury said, “I feel that everyone, in whatever event they do or have done, has progressed really well under all of the coaches that we have. All of them are so dedicated to spending time with us individually and I think that builds really good relationships…The coaches are always there to help us and support us and give us training that really sets us up well to peak and perform well at these really competitive meets.”
Cahilly said, “I think the team was really strong and it’s in part due to the really good leadership from Alex Fleury, who was a stellar example of being a strong athlete who…just showed us that consistent and persistent work serves you well.”
According to Fleury, the strength that the team showed at the meet shows promise for the future of Andover Track & Field.
Fleury said, “We’re a strong team, evidently by the results. You can see that we’ve got a lot of depth in a lot of different areas and I think that speaks really well for the future of [Andover Track & Field] because we’ve got a pretty young team right now. I see a lot of young leaders on this team that are ready to lead the future of [Andover Track & Field], and young leaders who are very strong right now. Seeing these younger student athletes [who compete] at these big meets and the younger athletes who didn’t compete at this meet, going forward we’ll have a community that fosters a lot of success.”
The team has finished competing in races this season.
