Sports

Neuwirth ’06 Dominates Three Events; Boys Swimming Remains Undefeated

Jamie Neuwirth ’06 led the undefeated Andover Boys Swim team to its sixth victory of the season this weekend at Hopkins. The team placed first in 9 of the 12 events, and Neuwirth swam three events and placed first in each. The final score was Andover 110, Hopkins 73. Andover started the meet off with an exciting 1-2 finish in the medley relay. The A relay consisted of Julian Azaret ’08, Scott McColl ’07, Brendon Sullivan ’07, and Stephen Lee-Kramer ’09. Azaret and Sullivan swam particularly well in their respective strokes, backstroke and butterfly. Then Neuwirth began his phenomenal day with a huge victory in the 200 Freestyle, winning by almost five seconds with the outstanding time of 1:48.92, a personal best by more than seven seconds. Bob Divers ’07 also swam a fantastic race and finished second, while Ryan Ferguson ’07 place fifth. Standout Lower Kevin Zhai ’08 cruised to his first victory of the day in the 200 IM, while Andrew Faulkner ’07 finished a few seconds behind him in second place. Tony Feng ’09 took fourth, while taking off almost ten seconds from his personal best. Then in the 50 Freestyle, the boys pulled off a sweep with Captain Jeff Zhou ’06 placing first, Dennis Jow ’07 coming in second, and Azaret taking third. In diving, Corey Psoinos ’07 wowed the crowd again, winning easily. D. Jow took second place in the 100 Fly, while Sullivan came in fourth. Next came the highly competitive 100 Freestyle. Neuwirth recorded his second victory of the day in this event, while Howie Kalter ’07 came in at a close second. Eric Van Oss ’07 took the fifth spot. Azaret was not in the 500 Freestyle for the first time all season, but McColl did a fantastic job replacing him, taking first after a well-paced race. . The 200 Freestyle was undoubtedly the highlight of the day for Andover. The A relay of Zhou, Lee-Kramer, Divers, and Neuwirth swam an absolutely incredible race, and their relay time of 1:29:18 missed the All-American standard by only .11 seconds, while also breaking the Hopkins pool record. With a few meets still left in the season, the boys will have a few more chances to get the All-American title. In addition to the team’s great time, Jeff Zhou took more than a tenth of a second off his 50 Free as the first leg in the relay. The B Andover relay of Feng, D.Jow, Van Oss, and Sullivan took second, while the other Relay of Vincent Jow ’09, Philip Meyer ’08, Jeff Cutts ’06, and James Martino ’09 placed fourth. The 100 Back was dominated by Azaret who won with a time of 57.40. Kalter took second, and William Faulkner ’09 finished fourth. Zhai took a close second in the 100 breast, while V. Jow placed fourth, neither of them, however, recording their best times. After a long meet, the Andover 400 Free relay of Van Oss, A. Faulkner, Ferguson, McColl couldn’t pull off the win, but the race was close nonetheless. Overall, though, Hopkins did not provide a lot of competition for the talented Andover squad, and many Andover swimmers earned personal bests. Captain Jeff Zhou said of the meet and of the future, “We had a great meet, and the 200 Free relay was really exciting, but the best is yet to come. We’re just looking ahead and working hard so we can accomplish all we can in the future. Everything is really coming together for us, and it seems like all of our training is finally starting to pay off.”