On Saturday, Conor McAuliffe ’10 raced to a 15 second win in the 500 yard freestyle. Out-touching his closest Hopkins opponent by an entire pool length, McAuliffe set the tone for what would be a dominant 100-81 win for Andover. With its victory Saturday, the team improved to 5-0, solidifying its place at the top of the league. Derrick Choi ’12 said, “Our goal has been to win every meet this season, and at this point, we haven’t let ourselves down. “ In this meet, some swimmers tried uncharacteristic strokes, allowing the Hopkins relay to hit the wall a full stroke ahead of the Andover relay in the 200 medley relay. Andover took second, third and fourth in this event, with the leading Andover relay of Lorenzo Conte ’12, Didi Peng ’12, Will Falk-Wallace ’10 and Jun Oh ’12 hitting the wall at 1:45.29. Andover swept the 200 freestyle, with Choi out-touching the first Hopkins swimmer and finishing third, while Matt Mahoney ’11 and Jon Leung ’11 raced ahead to finish first and second respectively. In the individual medley, Oh cruised to victory, winning by half a body length over the closest Hopkins swimmer, and followed closely by Alex Smachlo ’11 and Peng who finished third and fourth respectively. Co-Captain Curtis Hon ’10 said, “In each meet, we’ve consistently come out strong in the opening events. After a tough week of practice, we still came out and swam ideally today in these first events, even without putting our strongest line-up in.” Falk-Wallace and Randy Li ’10 continued Andover’s winning streak in the 50 freestyle with a 1-2 respective finish, Li touching the wall 0.35 seconds ahead of the closest Hopkins swimmer. Facing a talented Hopkins diving squad, Tommy Kramer ’11 finished third while Manwei Chan ’11 took fifth. Energized from the diving break, Alex Nanda ’11 and Lorenzo Conte ’12 swam a fast 100 yard butterfly race, taking second and third respectively. The team showed an even more impressive finish in the 100 yard freestyle, as Leung and Falk-Wallace hit the wall first and second respectively, Falk-Wallace finishing a stroke ahead of the following Hopkins swimmer, sealing another win for Andover. Mahoney said, “We put great effort into each event today, especially the 100 free and 100 fly. Falk-Wallace and Leung each had some of their best races of the year in this event, and Nanda put up a courageous effort trying to stay with one the fastest flyers in New England.” The 200 yard freestyle relay showcased the team’s talent, as the three relays swam a 1-2-3 finish, with the third Andover relay pulling in over four seconds ahead of the first Hopkins relay. The winning relay of Choi, Hon, Smachlo,and Andrew Xuan ’13 stopped the clock at 1:32.17. The next two events followed in the same suit with Oh, Ben Morris ’11 and Conte sweeping the 100 yard backstroke. Oh finished two body lengths ahead of the closest Hopkins swimmer, while Hon hit the wall a full stroke ahead of the fastest Hopkins swimmer. With this impressive win, the team maintained its unbeaten record this season. The team looks forward to its final dual meet against Exeter in two weeks, followed by the New england Championships at Hotchkiss. Hon said, “Today we came out and showed our talent, as we have done consistently in the last four meets. With these great performances, we can enter New Englands hoping to win. Before that, we need to finish up the season and beat Exeter.”
