Track Has Successful First Home Meet
Alexandra van Dijkum runs down Exeter’s outdoor track on a sunny Saturday. An avid cross country runner, she has no trouble passing through the ranks as she competes in the meet’s single-heat 3K. Now ahead of her Exeter teammates, the speedster keeps up the grind, passing through a herd of puffing male runners. With no one for meters behind her on the track, she finishes in first place, taking another set of well deserved points to add to Exeter’s collection.
Both boys’ and girls’ track won by a landslide last Saturday at the home group-meet versus Exeter High Schoaol, Hebron, Hyde and Pingree. The girls scored an incredible 166 points to the closest team’s 83, and the boys 150 to the closest 82.
Upper Maggie Hock delivered standout performances. Even though she is usually a prize winning mid-distance runner, coaches decided to try their luck with Hock in a sprinting event. Placed in the 200-meter, the distance runner laced up her speed kicks for a quick dash. In an incredible turn of events, Hock shot forward in front of the crowd of runners and stole first place for Big Red.
Lower Eva Carchidi says, “Watching the 200 was incredible! The coaches put her [Hock] in probably just to get a benchmark time, but she ended up winning which is really crazy.”
Another noteworthy athlete was senior Annelise Romero, who joined the Exeter Hall of Fame for her performance in triple jump and took first place in javelin.
Despite tiring back-to-back Saturday classes, the Exeter track team showed up ready to compete. “We started the meet out with our traditional ‘silent warmup’, which is exactly what it sounds like—no one speaks, no music. Looking at the other teams during our warm up lap was funny because we knew they were creeped out, but what can I say? We’re on another level,” said senior and co-captain Chi-Chi Ikpeazu.
Ikpeazu also shared the team’s feisty hype-up cheer that set the pace for the meet: “I made a couple of calls, I told them to pick up the phone. I said, ‘Hebron, Hyde, Pingree, EHS–you gotta go home!’”
Senior and co-captain Claire Melvin commended the 4x100 team, which kicked off the meet. She said, “Our 4x100m was strong, and each leg was fast, but we have a lot of work to do on our handoffs. I’d say that if we clean the transitions up, we can beat any team that was on the track this week and last.”
Ikpeazu agreed that the 4x1 set a nice tone for the way the meet would turn out, and she said, “Our 4x100 squads certainly set a tone, and a good one at that. As the rest of the team, including myself, saw them race around the track, we knew it was go time, and we were ready.”
In the field events, Exeter dominated all around. Upper Peter Sauer put on a spectacular performance when he threw the discus 155 feet and three inches to beat the previous school record.
Lower Ethan Rosenthal stated that the throw “completely smashed the hall of fame requirement; everyone on the throwing team started celebrating once we heard the length.” This throw was Sauer’s personal record, beating his previous throw by 20 ft.
Senior and co-captain Claire Melvin also commented, “It was a monster throw, and I looked up to see Peter Sauer running to retrieve the implement.” This throw not only captured everyone’s attention, but also helped Exeter secure the win on Saturday.
The first home meet of the season was more than successful as both the teams captured wins against EHS, Pingree, Hyde and Hebron. Lower Kaleb Washington looks forwards to continuing the powerful team atmosphere in future races. “Everyone radiated a positive aura, spreading encouragement to others throughout their many races.”