Track Runs Over Andover, St. Paul's

 Track and field handily defeated every opponent in the meet at Phillips Andover on Saturday. In boys’ track, Andover finished with just 31 points, St. Paul's chalked up a mere 33 points and Big Red won with 115. In girls’ track, Exeter again dominated: Andover scored 68 points, St. Pauls’ only managed 11 and Exeter finished with 100.

After Saturday’s commanding performance, both the boys’ and the girls’ teams are now 3-0 and looking forward to continuing their undefeated seasons.

The teams were excited after another crushing victory over their archrivals. "It always feels great to dominate a meet, but it was especially great to beat Andover and give them a sense of what our team can do," lower Katie Huffman said.

"We were really going in there looking to make a statement, and I think we proved that we are a team to be reckoned with," jumper and sprinter lower Warren Charleston added.

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There were very few events that Exeter did not win, but in particular, Big Red thrived on their distance races. Both the boys’ and the girls’ distance teams both performed very well. Their best race was the boys’ 1500-meter race, when they took all top three spots. Upper John Kennealy placed first and lowers Max Larnerd and Quincey Tichenor placed second and third, respectively. So far this year, the distance team has been Exeter’s deepest and most reliable unit, and they look forward to excelling.

Along with the distance teams, Big Red stood out in various other events. Upper Luke Gray hit his personal record in javelin and won the event, and prep Chudi Ikpeazu placed first in discus. "We have a really strong team. The team is very well-balanced both age-wise as well as in events," lower Will Li said. "Even though we are going to graduate a couple of really good seniors, I think we have people to fill their places next year."

The team has also found much inspiration from their coaches. Distance coach Brandon Newbould has been the teams greatest source of motivation. "He’s a very inspiring as a coach. He’s so experienced. He keeps it simple: if you work hard and stick to it, you will succeed," distance runner Kenny Burger said.

Just a while before the meet, Coach Newbould had placed 46th in the Boston Marathon, and fortunately after placing so high, he finished well before the bombings and was unharmed.

"We came into Andover looking to have the mindset to remember the people from the Boston Marathon, representing that in our performances," Charleston said.

Exeter’s track and field team came away Saturday with an overwhelming win, a great confidence booster to the team. The team is extremely competitive and sees themselves as being top competitors this season. Their next meet will be this Saturday against Exeter High School here at home. Both the girls and boys are looking forward to adding another W to their record.