The Andover Boys Swimming and Diving Team remains undefeared as they took first place in eight out of twelve races versus Hopkins in a commanding 104-82 victory. Captain Jamie Neuwirth ’06 led the group wth two individual wins, two wins as the anchor of relay teams. Andover took an early lead with a win in the 200 Medley relay. Captain Neuwirth out-touched his opponents by less than three-tenths of a second to take first place. Hopkins recovered ground on the overall score with a first place in the 200 Free, but Andover went on to take first in all but three of the remaining events. The 200 Individual Medley was an impressive display of the younger Andover swimmers. Sweeping the event, Kevin Zhai ’08 earned first; Julian Azaret ’08 took second, and Ryan Ferguson ’07 placed third. In the 50 Free, the shoes of the normal victor, Jeff Zhou ’06 were more than filled adequately by Neuwirth’s fast strokes. In diving, the recovered Cory Psoinos ’07 earned first place. He had been out of the rotation due to an accident on the board during practice. Second place was captured by Dave Wilkinson ’05. In the 100 Fly, Michael Preston ’05 took another Andover first place. After a fast start, Preston only added to his lead throughout the race. He finished more than three seconds ahead of the other swimmers. In the 100 Free, Neuwirth won again. During the first half of the race, he was trailing, but at the 50 yard turn, he pushed off explosively, taking first and holding it for the remainder of the race. In the 500 Free, Andover showcased some more of its younger swimmers, however, they did not fair as well as they had earlier. Howie Kalter ’07 stayed with the Hopkins swimmer trading the lead during the 20 lap race. In the end Kalter finished a respectable second. For third place, Ferguson held on for victory. In the 200 Free relay, Hopkins jumped out to the early lead and kept it. The extremely young team of Alex Schwartz ’07, Andrew Faulkner ’07, Zhai, and Sullivan showed some guts by pressing Hopkins early in the race. Hopkins had the faster team, winning by nearly four seconds. In the 100 Back, the younger swimmers proved themselves as Azaret and Faulkner went 1-2 despite trailing a Hopkins swimmer at the first 25. In the 400 Free Relay, Andover trailed Hopkins after an extremely fast first leg but quickly tied and extended its lead. This was most notable in the third leg, where Preston pulled ahead more than two body lengths. Captain Neuwirth said, “We swam well. There are obviously areas that need to be improved, especially as the season starts to wind down towards Interschols. Nonetheless, the team did very well, and I am extremely proud of our undefeated record.”
