Andover Runners Fight Hard Against Strong Exeter Squad

PAXC traveled to Exeter, NH on an unseasonably warm day to take on age-old rival Phillips Exeter in the annual Andover-Exeter dual meet. Exeter fields one of the strongest cross country teams in New England, and Andover runners were excited for the challenge.

In the first race of the day, the Varsity boys set the tone by going out hard and running tough against the exceptional Exeter front seven. In an exciting race at the top, Tam Gavenas ('25) battled with Exeter's number one runner across the course to run to a season's best time. Next for Andover, Max Huang ('24) continued his excellent trajectory with a hard-fought race with the second Exeter pack. Siiso Daauud ('23) finished third for Andover in a strong performance. Jakob Kuelps ('25), Luke Williamson ('25), and Rohan Kapoor ('23) came charging home as a pack, and Aidan Lin ('23) and Arun Kapoor ('25) closed out the Andover Varsity crew. Although the Exeter team came out on top, the Andover runners ran well in their final test before New Englands next weekend.

The JV race was a nail-biter all the way through. Taking the individual win with an incredible PR performance, Sebastian Lemberger ('25) blazed the path for his teammates up front. Robert Budzinski ('26) continued his excellent season with a strong race to take third place overall and second for Andover. Luke Francis ('25) and Max Boesch-Powers ('24) exemplified pack running by encouraging each other throughout the race, and they followed closely by Magnus Julin ('25) to round out Andover's scoring five. Avin Ramratnam ('24) and Constantine Krenteras ('24) moved into the top seven with hard-nosed racing. Overall, Andover had 39 runners in the JV race, and their were fabulous performances all the way through the lineup. Special recognition has to go to Jesse Zuniga ('26) and Vincent Giancola ('26) for PRing by more than 30 seconds--despite the heat! JV wins, 26-29.

Next week, PAXC will take nineteen runners to Saint Paul's to represent the team at the New England championship.