Andover Boys Take Advantage of Home Course at New Englands
On a beautiful New England cross country day, the Phillips Academy boys' cross country toed the line in the NEPSTA championship race on their home course. BXC took full advantage of this once-in-a-decade experience of running the championship race on their home course by competing hard and leaving it all out there.
The Varsity race started off fast with several expected front-runners, including Andover's own ninth-grade sensation, Tam Gavenas ('25), leading the way. Gavenas fought hard for a fourth-place overall run, taking four seconds off his PR to finish in a staggeringly fast 15:57. Next for PA, Aidan Lin ('23) stormed up the Great Lawn, passing half a dozen runners on his way to a fast finish. Close behind, Luke Williamson ('25) put his new spikes to good use with a strong, big-hearted run. Captain Matthew Ottenbreit ('22) was next in for the Blue with a near-PR in his last career race. Isaac Heitmann ('22) and Glen Cahilly ('23) made big moves on the Lawn as well to take sixth and seventh for Andover, respectively. Varsity took fifth as a team in a talented and deep field.
The JV runners were out for a team title from the start, and they fought hard throughout the well-trod course to stay in contention with a great squad from Exeter. Luke Francis ('25) flew through the last stretch and was PA's top finisher, taking fourth overall and lowering his PR significantly in the process. Rohan Kapoor ('23), Constantine Krenteras ('24), and Jason Zhang ('23) finished within 11 seconds of each other, toughing out the Lawn and holding their own in a competitive field to claim top-ten finishes. Next for Andover, Sebastian Lemberger ('25) continued his brilliant late-season running, taking fourteenth place overall. Bryan Chyu ('23) and Nigel Savage ('23) finished their last races strong and rounded out BXC's JV seven. In a close team competition, Andover JV took second as a team.
With so many runners returning next year, there's a lot to look forward to for PAXC.