Girls Swimming

Girls Swimming and Diving Strong Individual Performances Lead to First Win of the Season

Finishing in first place in nearly every single event, Andover Girls Swimming clinched a victory over Loomis Chaffee with a score of 100-81. The team’s record now stands at 1-1.

After a close loss against Choate in the team’s first meet of the season, Andover came out prepared and motivated to pick up its first win of the season against Loomis.

“I think our first meet of the season at Choate helped us realize what we need to work on and how to come back stronger,” said Co-Captain Katherine Sweetser ’17. “Overall, we felt much more confident going into our meet against Loomis.”

Emma Donchi ’18, Jess Gearan ’18, Allyson Ty ’18, and Grace Hitchcock ’20 opened the meet with an event win in the 200-Yard Individual Medley with a time of 1:54.46.

Andover finished first place in six of the eight total individual swimming events. Sweetser touched first in the 200-Yard Freestyle in a time of 2:00.19. Elizabeth Tran ’19 finished first in both the 200-Yard Individual Medley in a time of 2:15.89 and the 100-Yard Butterfly in a time of 1:00.05. Andover finished 1-2-3 in this event, with Sarah Zhao ’18 and Amy Xia ’19 following right behind Tran.

Allyson Ty claimed first in the 50-Yard Freestyle, with a time of 24.83. Kathleen Ty ’19 followed by securing first in the 100-Yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:12.78. Donchi also added a first place finish with a time of 1:01.99 in the 100-Yard Backstroke.

Also contributing to the team’s point tally in the diving session was Reese Pelletier ’20, who finished second place with a score of 236.70. Finishing third and fourth were Emelie Eldracher ’18, and Claire David ’20 with scores of 162.80 and 156.95, respectively.

“The week leading up to our meet against Loomis, the team focused mainly on improving our back dives as it was backwards week. This meant everyone in the meet was required to complete a dive in the backwards category as their first dive,” said Pelletier.

Many of the team’s swimmers credited their success to increased training during the week leading up to the meet. 

Co-Captain Gwyneth Wei ’17 said, “Coach Murphy really turned up the training this past week and we were able to train for a full week beforehand. We started the week with several distance sets and moved towards sprint sets later on in the week.”

Allyson Ty added, “We were very excited and determined to swim our best at the meet, and we were very proud at how the meet turned out.”

After the break, Andover will face Suffield and national powerhouse Peddie in a tri-meet. Andover hopes to carry its momentum from this meet through the break.

Gearan said, “Over break, some of my teammates and I will swim with each of our club teams at home. We will be getting a lot of yardage in so we have a smooth transition hopping back in the pool at [Andover] in January.”