Girls Swimming Sports Winter Sports

Andover Falls Despite Strong Performance

With a five-yard stretch left in the 50-Yard Freestyle, Allyson Ty ’18 swam past her Hopkins opponent to clinch first place for Andover Girls Swimming & Diving with a time of 24.73 seconds. Despite multiple first- and second-place finishes, however, the team suffered a narrow 93-92 loss to Hopkins last Saturday. Andover’s league record now stands at 4-2.

Despite the close loss, Andover swimmers performed well and showed promise for its upcoming meet at Phillips Exeter Academy and then at the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (Nepsac) Girls Division I Swimming Championships at the end of the season.

Yifei Wu ’17 said, “Going into the meet, we knew it was going to be very, very close, so everyone tried our absolute bests. I really don’t think there is anything to regret. All the races were very close; we had a lot of depth. In a way, this meet motivates us to continue working hard at practice and to really be prepared when we meet Hopkins again at New Englands.”

In the first event of the meet, the relay team composed of Co-Captain Sasha Newton ’16, Wu, Emma Donchi ’18 and Liz Tran ’19 swam to a second-place finish with a time of 1:54.10 minutes.

In the 200-Yard Freestyle, Katherine Sweetser ’17, Jess Gearan ’18 and Macey Mannion ’19 claimed second, third and fourth places with times of 2:00.62, 2:02.46 and 2:10.92 minutes, respectively.

Gearan wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “The meet was super exciting because it was so close. Every swimmer stepped up and did their job, but it did end up being a tough loss. The whole team is very excited to get back in the water this week and train hard to have a great meet against Exeter.”

In the 100-Yard Butterfly, Sweetser took a first-place victory with a time of 59.79 seconds. Ashley Teo ’17 and Co-Captain Elizabeth Duserick ’16 placed third and fourth in the event with times of 1:02.75 and 1:03.86 minutes, respectively.

Trailing by a few points, Wu powered her way into the wall to win the 100-Yard Breaststroke by 0.03 seconds with a time of 1:12.09 seconds. Wu’s win gave Andover a spark that motivated the team to keep the score margin close.

In the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay, Duserick, Newton, Juliette Farmer ’18 and Ty claimed second place with a time of 1:43.98 minutes, only 0.44 seconds behind Hopkins’ first-place relay.

Farmer said, “We really pulled together as a team to do well this weekend at Hopkins. There were some great, fast swims, as well as some season and lifetime bests. Despite a one-point loss, the team is staying positive and looking forward to facing off against Exeter on Saturday, and New Englands in less than three weeks.”

Determine to bounce back from its tough loss, Andover looks to challenge Exeter in its next meet on Saturday.