Girls’ Track Falls Short to EHS
PEA Girls’ Track faced down Exeter High School at home under the hot sun in their second meet of the season this past Saturday. Despite an immense team effort, the talented Exeter High School team ended up victorious in the end, due to the amount of absent and injured Big Red runners.
Coming off a considerably strong win last week against Governor’s Academy and Worcester Academy—during which Big Red crushed the competition by nearly 50 points —the team was focused and excited for their throwdown against Exeter High School. Lower Evie Houston reflected that not only was the team physically prepared, but also “in a good place mentally.” She explained that the team was aware of the challenge before them but was focused on capitalizing during the early season meet. “EHS always gives us some really good competition and the coaches told us to really seize this opportunity to have strong competition on the other side,” Houston said. Houston also noted that since it is still the beginning of the season, “sometimes it isn’t about winning the meet,” but instead preparing for the larger meets down the road.
Despite the range in competition throughout the season, senior Kristen Richards detailed the team’s mentality heading into the race as one that remains consistent and strong throughout the season, even during early meets. “The expectation of every meet is that we compete hard and run to the best of our ability. And of course, to work as a team and support each other,” Richards said. Many runners did just that on Saturday.
Lower Sadie Griffith highlighted prep Kaylee Bennett’s performance in the 4x400 meter relay, during which she pulled PEA ahead at the clubhouse turn for a first-place finish. Richards also emphasized upper Maddie Machado’s standout performance in the 1500 meter race. “She out kicked the Exeter High School girl at the end and finished the race really strong,” Richards said.
Prep Stella Shattuck also threw her personal best in the javelin competition and aims to focus on breaking the prep girl record for javelin this season. Currently, she is only 9’7” away from doing so. “The girls worked hard,” Griffith emphasized, “and our distance runners and throwers did amazing.”
Overall, members of the team credited the outcome to the significant number of missing runners. “Considering the number of people that were out of town or injured,” Houston said, “I think that we did pretty well!” Richards emphasized the effort and neglected the score, saying “We worked together well as a team, regardless of the outcome.”
With a unique relay-focused meet on the horizon at Deerfield, the team hopes to power through their loss and to come out with a win this upcoming Saturday. With training focused on learning from the outcome and using the loss to their advantage, the team can be confident in the remainder of their season. As Houston noted, when looking to the rest of the season, meets such as that of Saturday “are really good for getting times that indicate where you are and they expose things that we can work on, so when E/a comes around we are ready to win!”