Facing its competition with a diminished roster of only 17 members, compared to the usual 22, the Andover Boys Swimming and Diving team left Loomis floundering 116-69 last Saturday. Since the meet took place at Loomis, who boasts a 25-meter pool, each event was 20 percent longer than in the traditional 25-yard venue. But the Andover boys refused to allow the foreign conditions to hinder their performances. Andover asserted its domination right from the beginning when the 200 Medley relay team of Jimmy Brenner ’10, Curtis Hon ’10, Co-Captain Brenden Deveney ’09 and Co-Captain Kevin Zhai ’08 glided to victory in 1:54.38. Edging out the competition’s fastest swimmers, the squad of Julian Azaret ’08, Matt Mahoney ’11, Conor McAuliffe ’10 and Will Falk-Wallace ’11 captured second. Ben Morris scored his first individual-event win of the season in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 2:09.32, followed close behind by Tony Feng ’09 and William Faulkner ’09. Mahoney continued the ninth grade-winning streak, capturing the 200-meter Individual Medley.Finishing behind Mahoney’s imposing 2:18.35, Alex Smachlo ’11 took second in 2:23.70. In the 50 free, Brenner and Falk-Wallace out-touched their opponents to score second and third. Close behind by just fractions of a second, Jonathan Leung placed fifth. Andover divers proved that they possess refined metal toughness. Despite competing against two the most talented divers in the league, each executed their divers beautifully. Captain J.R. Santaniello ’08 conquered several complex dives to finish third with a score of 100.05 points. In the first meet of his career, Kyle Ofori ’09 showed promise and earned 89.40 points for fourth place. Andover owned the 100-meter Butterfly as Deveney, Zhai and Larry Zhou ’09 overthrew their competition in a superb race to claim first, second and third places, respectively. Morris took first in the 100-meter Freestyle in 58.59, followed only three-hundredths of a second later by Leung. McAuliffe then blew away the crowd with his incredible win in the 400-meter Freestyle in 4:19.13. Smachlo followed in second with a time of 4:31.63. Andover’s 200-meter Freestyle relay team of Randy Li ’10, Zhou, Morris, and Mahoney took first to further broaden the discrepancy between Andover and its opponent. Andover swept the 100-meter Backstroke, with Deveney finishing first, followed by Brenner and Faulkner. Hon rolled in another win in the 100-meter Breaststroke with a time of 1:09.53. Andover further demonstrated its talent and depth in the 400-meter Freestyle Relay. Not only did the team of Zhai, Leung, Azaret and Deveney secure the victory, Andover also took second and third. Andover will face Northfield Mount Hermon and Milton in a tri-meet this Saturday.
