Boys’ and Girls’ Track Snag Another Win
The girls’ and boys’ varsity and JV track teams visited Deerfield Academy in a tri-team meet with Deerfield and Northfield Mount Hermon this past Saturday. The boys’ team entered the meet with a perfect record and left with an even better 6-0, while the girls chalked up another win, pushing their record to 3-2. It was an incredibly successful meet for Exeter and for the individual athletes. Among many other personal records and outstanding achievements, upper Matt Asante hall-of-famed in the 400m for his performance.
“We had many good performances by the girls on our team. Many people PR’d, which is great because we need to see self-improvement rather than us beating the other team.”
The meet kicked off at 2:00 p.m., starting with the girls’ high jump and boys’ long jump. In just this first event, the girls’ swept the finals, with an Exeter jumper in each of the final spots. Exeter then placed third in both the girls’ and the boys’ high jumps. In the girls’ triple jump, lower Gwen Wallace achieved her personal best and also placed first. Her best jump came within a quarter of an inch of tying the school record.
“It was really exciting because triple jumping is fairly new to me. Interschols is this Saturday, so I’m hoping to break it then, but I had a great time jumping at Deerfield,” Wallace said.
Forty-five minutes later, the running events began. The first running event was the boys’ and girls’ 4x100 relay with the boys’ relay team of Tommy Miller, Marcus Polk, Sacharja Cunningham and Mason Polk, and the girls’ of Jordan Bolden, Grace Pratt, Maya Robinson and Gwen Wallace. In the boys’ relay, the race was close for the first 200 meters before Exeter blew open the lead in the third leg the race and never relinquished it. In the girls’ race, the Exeter team had a strong start. However, following a shaky hand off, Exeter lost the lead due to a strong third leg from NMH. Unfortunately, Deerfield pushed during the last 100 meters and Exeter girls placed third.
Exeter had a dominant performance in the throwing events. Upper Chudi Ikpeazu placed first in all three events: shot put, javelin and discus. Exeter boys also swept the finals in shot put.
The meet ended with the 4x4. Instead of the usual varsity 4x4 team, Exeter sent Tallah Babou, Kenny Berger, Max Rerkpattanapipat and Holden Hammontree. During the race, although Exeter maintained a solid lead throughout the first three laps, Deerfield cut the gap when its anchor ran a 49 second split. Fortunately, Exeter prevailed.
Overall the distance runners performed well, and the track team lauded them for their races. Lower Timur Luke said, “Overall, distance did really well, especially in the shorter distances. In the 800 and the 1500, we did pretty well. It was really challenging at Deerfield because it was an away meet, and it was also really hot. We sat in a place with inadequate shade. I think the sun got to some of the runners. The track was of good quality. It was the first heat we were exposed to so much sun and heat.”
Speaking on the meet as a whole, captain Jordan Bolden said, “We had many good performances by the girls on our team. Many people PR’d, which is great because we need to see self-improvement rather than us beating the other team. Speaking of which, we had a lot of great competition on Saturday. I think that these were some of the strongest two teams we have been against this whole season and seeing as though we are going to interschols next week, it is what we needed.”
Big Red’s next race is Interschols at Northfield Mount Hermon. The boys hope to finish another perfect season while the girls hope to further another successful season.