Sports

Lady Swimmers Win Big; Big Blue Slams Hoggers

The Lady Blue dominates in the pool. The Andover squad has not lost an event yet, taking victories in every event for the second weekend in a row. Having tallied two in the W column thus far, the Big Blue looks to be unbeatable. Even though last Saturday’s meet against Northfield Mount Hermon proved to be an easy win for the Andover squad, the girls still have a lot of work to do. Last Saturday, PA’s Varsity swimming and diving team made the trek to NMH to face off against the Hoggers. After a long two-hour bus ride, the team jumped right in to begin warming up. Coming off of a successful meet against Loomis, the girls were more than excited for their first meet in a 25 yard pool. The morning could not have started out better with a win in the 200 medley relay. The team of Mary Burris ’05, Alyssa Hill ’06, Margaret Ramsey ’03, and Hee-jin Chang ’05 finished with an impressive time of 1:59.28. Andover’s second seed in the event was disqualified after one of the members in the relay false started. PA’s other seed finished strong to round out the top three. After a disappointing relay disqualification, Kate Page ’04 was right back in the water, dominating as usual. Page, the school record holder in the 200 freestyle, took the event easily with a time of 2:00.75. She was followed closely, however, by junior sensation Katie Faulkner ’06 who touched the pad a mere two seconds later. Faulkner finished with her nearest competition over five seconds behind her. Page and Faulkner certainly left their competition in the dust. The Demers duo of captain Sarah ’03 and younger sister Liz ’05 drowned the competition in the 200 individual medley. Sarah finished first with a time of 2:16.21, with Liz finishing second three seconds later. The Demers’ nearest competition was over ten seconds behind them. Swimming her specialty event for the first time this season Chang ’05 finished more than a body length ahead of the second place finisher. Although Chang ’05 easily took the event, her time of 24.18 is still a second off her shaved and tapered time from last March. This simply goes to show that even Andover’s best still has some training to do before Interschols rolls around. Emily Brenner ’06 lost a close race to Hoggers’ Stevenson to take third for the event. By the end of the first half, Andover had a commanding 42-20 lead. The diving divas proved that the swimmers were not the only ones improving. Captain Janis Scanlon ’03 scored a 206.5, taking first place by over thirty points and bettering her score from last weekend by seven points. Jackie LeBoutillier ’04 took second place with a score of 174.3, almost thirty points better than her score from the Loomis meet. Skilled freshman Liz Finnegan ’06 rounded out the Andover diving trio with a fourth place finish. Finnegan, who recently injured her tailbone, hopes to quickly recover in time for this weekend’s home meet. Demers ’03 took her second win of the morning in the 100 fly. Faulkner and Mari Ono ’03 took second and third place respectively, to give Andover its first sweep of the day. PG Ramsey took the next event with a blazing time of 55.99 followed closely by Alex Doty ’05. The Big Blue took their fourth 1-2 in the 500 freestyle with Chang ’05 taking the win and Kim Walker ’03 finishing second. A gutsy performance by Abbe Anderson ’03 was rewarded with a fifth place finish. The second relay of the morning, the 200 freestyle relay, was won by a team of the Demers ‘03, Demers ’05, Doty, and Ramsey. Page continued her winning streak in the 100 back where she took the win to finish with a time of 1:02.48. The 100 breaststroke rounded out the day’s individual events. Demers ’05 took the victory touching in at 1:10.89. Anderson, recovered from her 500 free, took third with a lifetime best of 1:22.20. Varsity newcomer Heidi Adlman ’04 followed Anderson closely to take fourth in the event. The last race of the day turned out to be the most competitive. Doty was on the relay team with Chang ’05, Demers ’03, and Ono. These girls were pit against the foursome of Faulkner, Page, Walker, and Ramsey. Right before the beginning of this 400 free relay, tension was mounting between the two teams. In the end it was the team of Faulkner, Page, Walker, and Ramsey that took the last victory of the day.