Girls' Track Takes Second at Interschols

The talk of the season, the excitement of the week and the meet the track team has been preparing for during the last two months took place this Saturday at Exeter. The annual Interscholastic Championships attracted a multitude of Big Red supporters who filled the stands, shouted cheers and made themselves conspicuous all around the track. The girls’ placed second while the boys placed sixth.

It was all blue skies and sunshine, with athletes zipping back and forth on red polyurethane, competing in various distance events and hopping over hurdles. Inside the elongated donut of the track, athletes jumped immeasurable heights and threw long distances across the field.

The boys pushed themselves to the limit, placing sixth among 12 schools. Unfortunately, they had lost many of their runners to injury, including the captains and two fastest sprinters, seniors Vince Vaughn and Matt Asante. Nonetheless, they fought hard, persevering until the end.

The team’s points consisted mainly of distance and throw events, because they could not rely on the relays and sprints to secure the points as they were missing three of their fastest runners. Senior and co-captain Chudi Ikpeazu scored 26 points after placing 1st in the discus and shotput, placing 3rd in the triple jump event and breaking the school record in the discus event. All in all, he scored more than half of the 46 total points on the boys team.

“Now we’re just looking forward to the meet against Andover and hoping to come out on top.”

Distance runners upper Atticus Stonestrom and Garrett Pitt placed in fourth and seventh in the 3k, winning five points for the team. On top of that, Pitt also competed in the 1500-meter a few hours before the 3k, coming in sixth.

The girls’ side of the track team proved to be significantly stronger than the boys, placing in second overall behind Andover by 40 points, just beating Loomis by a smidgen of four points.

Lower Chichi Ikpeazu placed sixth in both the shotput and discus event, following in her brother, Chudi Ikpeazu’s footsteps. Upper Christine Hu ran two outstanding races in the 1500 and 3k, easily grasping first in both events, which scored a quarter of the girls’ team’s points.

Senior Peace Kabari placed in three field events: third in the triple jump, third in shot put and sixth in the long jump.

The last event, the 4x400 relay came in “clutch,” as lower Chi Chi Ikpeazu described it, “holding off Loomis Chaffee at the very end, denying them the four points they needed to place second instead of us.”

The team has one last meet this season, a dual meet against the infamous Andover. During Interschols, Andover placed one team above Exeter overall, and now Big Red is looking for revenge.

“It was definitely a rough day across the board for boys track, but all we can do is look forward to our final meet of the season,” upper Issay Matsumoto said.

For a change, the meet will be held at the Andover track, and the team will use this week to train hard and recover from schols.

“Now we’re just looking forward to the meet against Andover and hoping to come out on top,” Asante said.