Indoor Season Opens with a Win
The Andover boys’ track and field team racked up 72 points to open the 2019-20 season with a resounding win over Andover High (46 points), Wilbraham & Monson (36 points), and the Governor’s Academy (12 points). A balanced effort saw nineteen different athletes score on the afternoon, highlighting the depth of this year’s team. In the sprints, Alexander Oder (’21)opened his season with a blistering 6.78 in the 55m dash – a new upper record and just 0.01 seconds off the school record – which was good for first place, while Alexander Schimmel (’22)claimed victory in the 300m dash (38.87 seconds) and finished fifth in the 55m (6.99 seconds), both of which established new lower records. Oder and Schimmel would also team up with Zach Moynihan (’21)and Ayana Alemayehu (’21)to claim the 4x200m in 1:37.55. In the middle-distance events, Alexander Meyer (’20)finished third in the 600m in a strong 1:29.17, while Alexander Fung (’21)and Ellerman Mateo (’21)went 1-2 in the 1000m, posting times of 2:48.35 and 2:49.83, respectively.Leo Deng (’21)followed Fung and Mateo with a 4thplace finish of his own. Moving up in distance, the Big Blue came away with a 1-2-3 sweeps of both the mile and the 2 mile, led by Isaac Heitman (’22), Jack Wilcox (’22), and Benjamin Fu (’21)in the former and Harrison Wilson (’20), Glen Cahilly (’23),and Fu in the latter. The final running event – the 4x400m relay – saw another victory for the Big Blue, as the team of Meyer, Wilson, Fung, and Julian Dahl (’22)stopped the clock in 3:50.54.
Over in the field, Liu Rothschild (’20)and Safwat Omar (’23)both cleared 5-02.00 to finish fourth and fifth in the High Jump, while Oder (19-01.75) and Sebastian Zhu (’20)(18-05.50) placed third and fourth in the Long Jump. The lone throwing event also saw strong performances of Andover, with Ugo O’Gonuwe (’20)(40-04.00), Holt Bitler (’21)(40-00.50), and Rothschild (36-05.25) going 2-3-4.