In coach Travis Thayer’s first season as Andover Central’s cross country coach, he hit the ground running, implementing an offseason plan that would put his vision for the team into place. “Our offseason was directed towards building towards October,” Thayer said, “and we spent a lot of time integrating our new philosophy with the team as it is our first season here. We worked a lot on strength training and building an aerobic base.”
So far, that philosophy and training has led to 88% of the athletes achieving a personal record this season, despite multiple injury setbacks. Thayer commented on the injury bug- “We have had multiple injuries that have sidelined runners anywhere from a couple of days to up to 6 weeks. We have had a new boy on varsity each of the first 4 weeks due to them coming back from injury. It has been a slow process, but one that is showing great promise heading into the postseason.”
Coach Thayer highlighted returning all-league runner Ethan Finney as a standout this season, with a PR of 17:01, as well as Marcel Vincent as the #2 runner with a PR of 17:11. When asked about goals for the remainder of the year, Thayer stated- “Our goal the remainder of the year is to continue to progress on our strong foundation we have built. We are focused on progress over perfection. We are looking to do well at league and regionals coming up in a few weeks!”
