BXC Floods Out Andover Competition
Senior Joseph Walewski darts down the course, speeding up to fifth place. Suddenly, his shoe sinks into a thick puddle of mud, peeling it off of his heel and forcing him to kick it into the woods beside him. With no other option, the varsity runner keeps up his pace, striding just ahead of the Andover runners for the rest of the race.
The boys’ varsity cross-country team secured a huge win this weekend in their Exeter/Andover races, defeating them with an impressive 41-20 score. Exeter runners not only won the match, but placed first, third, fourth, fifth and seventh overall. These outstanding performances allowed only two Andover runners to place in the top seven.
Exeter’s knockout performance can be attributed to several runners who ran their hardest to beat Andover, outperforming not only the competition, but their own personal records. “Upper Will Coogan won the race in solid time, despite the difficult conditions and Joe Walewski took fifth place overall after losing a shoe to the mud,” senior and co-captain Charlie Neuhaus said.
Walewski added, “In addition to my own performance, lower Andrew Luke, prep Bradley St. Laurent and Coogan also had fantastic races, despite the very difficult conditions.” Rain or shine, the boys’ cross-country team strives to outperform every team they face. With the end of the season approaching, many of the runners gave everything they had during the last meet before Interschols.
The team maintained its positivity from their previous successful races. “We are doing very well this season. We beat both Andover and [Northfield Mount Hermon], our steepest competition for Interschols, so there is definitely optimism,” Walewski said. “However, we know that many unexpected things can happen on race day—as my E/a shows quite well—so you must be prepared to race in the worst conditions possible,”
Furthermore, St. Laurent added, “We are very confident and our morale is high.” The team looks forward to the biggest race of the season—the team’s competitive record has allowed it to qualify for Interschols this Saturday.
Interschols is an event that includes all of the qualifying cross-country teams in the preparatory league. This year, it is to be held at Avon Old Farms in Connecticut.
“Interschols is what we’ve been training for the entire season, and we definitely have our eyes on the title this year,” Neuhaus said. “I’m really proud of how the team has been racing, and I think if we continue to compete as we have been in our dual meets, we’ll have a good shot at that.”