Winter Track Dominates NHIAA Meet

By Vir Shrestha and Lianna Yang

On Jan. 21, Exeter’s boys’ track team hosted their annual NHIAA home meet, the first meet back from winter break. The atmosphere was electric, helping propel many Exonians towards stellar performances.

Many runners and throwers expressed their excitement of competing after a long hiatus due to COVID-19 restrictions. “I haven’t competed since last spring, so the contest was great for my development as an athlete and as my last year on the team,” senior Sava Thurber said. “Of course, for this first meet, there was a mask mandate, but getting several schools in the field house was a nice taste of normalcy.”

Lower Tanner Boulden agreed “This was my first real winter term meet ever, so the pressure and excitement for my shotput was at an all time high.”

Runners discussed the effervescent environment within the field house. “This meet brought seven or eight schools from the area so it was packed. When people were cheering for someone, they were really cheering, and it was a great environment,” lower Advay Nomula said.

Post-grad Kamran Murray agreed. “It gave a lot of people a glimpse of what this sport is like and how electric an atmosphere these track meets can have. Everyone was supporting each other and I hope the younger athletes felt this and are hungry for more.” 

In anticipation of the upcoming track meets, runners had been training hard in practices for weeks. “We had a hard interval workout the Saturday before which helped us prepare for the racing at the meet. I know for me, it was going to be my first meet of the season, so I was looking forward to it a lot.” Nomula shared. 

Thurber additionally noted “a strong sense of leadership from the upperclassmen and several instances of mentorship directed toward the first-year teammates.” 

The practices paid off specifically within distance events, as Big Red dominated the boys’ 1k, mile, and two-mile. Murray set a record in the boys two-mile with a time of 9 minutes and 37 seconds.

Many runners achieved a personal record (PR) during their meet. “​​My highlight of the meet was certainly the mile, in which I achieved a seven-second PR,” lower Michael Zhu said. “Bradley’s dominance in that race was inspiring and the other Exonians participating in that race demonstrated great teamwork.”

Nomula also shouted out his fellow teammates. “Byron had an amazing kick in the 1K and beat Tyler Sheedy, a fast guy from Dover. That 1K was a very good race to watch,” Nomula said. 

Runners are hopeful to continue improving throughout the season as well as continue to foster a deeper communal connection within the team. “I hope the rest of the season pans out like we have planned and we start to have our peak performances in the coming weeks and show up at Andover and the postseason,” Murray said.

The team is looking forward to developing further with the momentum from this meet. Thurber speaks of “ hop[ing] to continue helping the underclassmen get acquainted with the Track culture and customs in order to foster a helpful environment.” The future looks bright for Big Red track.