Andover Boys Take Second at NEPSTA Championship
In a championship day full of surprises, the Phillips Academy boys' cross country team competed brilliantly against more than a dozen New England prep school teams at Saint Paul's School to secure second place in both Varsity and JV races.
In the first race of the day, the Varsity boys ran with poise and toughness to set the tone for the rest of the team. Surging in the last 400 meters, senior Siiso Daauud ('23) crossed the line first for Andover, taking tenth place overall. Close behind, Max Huang ('24) took eleventh overall in a hard-nosed race. Jakob Kuelps ('25) and captain Aidan Lin ('23) were next for PAXC, fighting for every place. Sebastian Lemberger ('25) fought through illness to round out Andover's scoring five, and Luke Williamson ('25) showed real fight to finish as Andover's sixth runner. It was an incredible performance for Big Blue.
On the JV side, Andover knew it would be locked in a close contest with Exeter's formidable squad. Living up to the hype, the top ten positions were all runners from A-E with PAXC captain Rohan Kapoor ('23) taking the individual win in a remarkable run. Next for Andover were Arun Kapoor ('25) and Robert Budzinski ('26), who both turned in excellent performances. A surging Luke Francis ('25) followed closely, and a PRing Nathan Neu ('26) was Andover's fifth runner in his best race of the season. Magnus Julin ('24), Avin Ramratnam ('24), and Max Boesch-Powers ('24) formed the next PAXC pack, and they were followed by Vance Fabrizio ('24). Nigel Savage ('23), Ethan Qi ('23), and Constantine Krenteras ('24) raced well for Andover to finish the JV squad. When the dust settled after inspiring performances from both sides, Andover fell just short of their neighbors from the north to take second place as a team.
The memorable PAXC 2022 is now in the books. Given the number of returning runners on the squad, things look bright for future years. There are many good miles ahead!