Sports

Andover Falls to Exeter for First Time in Five Years; Seniors Roddy and Villareal Swim Season-Bests

After a triumphant 98-67 win against Williston on Saturday with several seasonal bests, the Andover Girls Swimming and Diving team suffered an emotional loss against Phillip’s Exeter Academy last Wednesday, 84-100, for the first time in five years. With Exeter always leading by just a few points, the intensity of the meet was very high. Both Captain Carly Villareal ’07 and Erika Roddy ’07 swam successfully at both meets, and were responsible for the two individual first place wins Andover grabbed against Exeter. Against Williston, Andover swept all but one event. In the meet, Roddy swam two seasonal bests. Her first cam in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 2:03.02. Captain Villareal closely following in 2:04.35. The duo performed well again in the 100 Freestyle, where Roddy went a 55.93 and Villareal a 57.52. Despite anxiety cause by the historical significance behind the Andover-Exeter meet, both Greta Martin ’09 and Veronica Faller ’09 had excellent swims, executing season bests in the 100 Butterfly and 100 Backstroke, respectively. The Exeter squad out-touched Andover’s “A” Relay team by 0.27 seconds even with a strong lineup consisting of Faller, Salena Casha ’09, Martin and Peyton Morss ’10. Andover took a comfortable 2-3 in the opening 200 Medley Relay. Captain Villareal then out-swam two Exeter competitors in the 200 Freestyle, finishing with a season-best time of 2:02.63. Points for the 200 Individual Medley were split evenly between the two schools with Casha coming in second at 2:13.75, trailed by teammates Annie Glancy ’09 in fourth, and Aubrey Zimmerling ’09 who came in fifth. This left the score 21-25 going into the 50 Freestyle. With Roddy swimming a season-best 25.67 to win the 50 Freestyle, Andover took 1st, 4th, and 5th to leave the team only two points behind the competition. Though Rachel Reinauer ’07 and the rest of Andover diving performed well, Exeter managed to gain most of the points during diving, leaving the team eight points behind heading into the second half of the meet. Though Exeter swam unexpectedly strong 100 Butterfly times, Celia Lewis ’10 managed to take second with a season-best 1:02.03. Next, Andover won the 100 Freestyle with a 2-3-4 finish by Roddy (55.86), Glancy (57.19), and Mai Kristofferson ’09 (58.10), who all swam season-best times. With two very strong Exeter swimmers taking the lead, the 500 Freestyle resulted in a slight loss for the team with Lewis and Villareal managing to pull through with third and fourth place finishes. Excitement roared through the crowd when the Andover “A” managed out-touch the Exeter “A” 200 Freestyle Relay by .58 seconds, for an overall 1-3 finish in the event. This left the team only six points behind heading into the last three events. Andover experienced a crucial loss when two strong Exeter swimmers took wins in the 100 Backstroke, despite a seasonal best by Faller (1:05.73). Though Allie Hall ’10, Janet Scognamilglio ’08, and Kit managed to take 2-3-4 in the 100 Breaststroke, the swim did not make up the difference. The meet concluded in an exciting 400 Freestyle Relay where Andover placed 2-3 again. The team rests for a week and a half until they make their way to Deerfield for the much anticipated New England Championships, where Andover plans to passionately defend their five-year title.