Recording a first place finishes in each of the meet’s 12 events, the Andover Girls Swim Team kicked off its season with a win over Suffield on December 8 with a score of 140-45. With many new additions to the team including Eva Simitch Warke ’09, Alanna Waldman ’10, Julianna Reider ’10, Lexi Moroney ’11, Theresa Faller ’11 and Kristen Faulkner ’11, Andover appears to be even stronger than its dominating team last year. “Losing a lot of fast Seniors, I think that the swimmers brought in this year should more than fill in the gaps left by those who have graduated,” said Coach Paul Murphy. The team started off the season with a meet against Suffield. Despite having little time to prepare for the meet, Andover managed to place first in each of the 12 events, dominating the competition. The day began with a first-place finish from the medley relay team of Faller, Allie Hall ’10, Annie Glancy ’09 and Peyton Morss ’10 in 1:56.02. Faulkner highlighted the second half of the meet, setting a personal best in the 500 Free. Morss and Glancy recorded their second first place finishes of the day in the 100 Free and 100 Fly, respectively. The 200 Free Relay Team of Faller, Mai Kristofferson ’09, Faulkner and Moroney came through with a win, as did the 400 Free Relay. Emily Johnson ’10, who recorded a spectacular score of 216.55 points, led the Diving team to a victory. A month later, Andover returned to the pool and faced off against Choate, its toughest competition of the year. Many strong finishes by the Andover girls kept them level with Choate throughout the day. First place finishes from Morss in the 50 Free and 100 Free, from Faulkner , Kristofferson, Moroney and Morss in the 200 Free Relay, and from Faller in the 100 Back gained key points for Andover. Going into the final relay, Andover held 86 points, while Choate had 85. In what turned out to be an exciting race, Choate just managed to edge out a win by .52 seconds. Choate’s relay performance handed Andover’s its first defeat of the season by the score of 90-95. Andover’s next meet will be this Saturday at Loomis Chafee in what promises to be a competitive match-up.
