For the first time in school history, the boys' winter track team has won the Indoor State Championship.
"The boys won the overall team championship for the first time in school history," shared Coach Zach Richards, Hon. "Our boys are also the first Inter-Ac school to accomplish this feat!"
The team competed in the PTFCA High School Indoor State Championship on Sunday, Feb. 26, at Penn State University, and won the meet with 34 points, just two points ahead of Abington High School.
"It is an incredible feeling to have won the state championship," said senior captain Dakin Ebmeyer. "Following last year's second-place finish, our one goal all season was to get first place. All season, we have just talked about getting to the day where we would put it all on the line."
"I am thrilled that we brought the state title home for our school!" said Aidan McHugh, who is also a senior captain. "Going into the meet, the thought was to stick to the plan and get done what needed to be done. Throughout the meet, things did not go my and our way, but we kept our heads up together and were able to get the job done."
EA's record-setting 4x800m relay (Aidan McHugh, Eli Engelman '25, Dawson French '24, and Dakin Ebmeyer) paced the day with a critical first place win (7:52.39) by narrowly edging out Penncrest High School.
"Going into the meet, we knew the day could go a lot of ways, and it most definitely did," said Dakin. "It was incredibly stressful thinking about the points and what places we needed people to finish. However, it was key that we trusted in our training and that we could go out and perform the ways we had all season."
Michael Woolery '24 next set another school record (1:52.83) in the 800m, running away with first place. Michael is now ranked #9 in the country in the 800m.
The Distance Medley Relay (Eli Engelman, Connor Hanrahan '23, Michael Woolery, and Dakin Ebmeyer) ran to second place and broke a school record with their time of 10:23.53.
With the championship on the line, it came down to the 4x400m relay team (Abaas Hunter '26, Aidan McHugh, Connor Hanrahan, and Michael Woolery), who broke another school record, finishing third with a time of 3:21.80.
"When it was all done and dusted, it was an incredible feeling to look up on the big scoreboard and see Episcopal Academy on the top of the boys' standings," reflected Dakin. "To cap off our indoor season, a number of athletes will go on to compete at Nationals, where we hope to finally finish our indoor season."
Nike Indoor Nationals will take place March 11-13 at The Armory in New York City. The team will also compete at The Track at New Balance in Boston for New Balance Nationals.
"It was a really competitive meet, and some things did not go as planned. We faced some adversity early in the meet, but the boys rallied and finished strong to secure the victory," said Coach Richards. "State Champs!"
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