Led by a win from Kendall Macrae ’11 in diving and first place finishes in the 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter freestyle by Amy Zhao ’14, Andover’s girls varsity swim team opened the season with a 102-79 victory over Choate. With much depth in the large squad of 24 swimmers and three divers, the girls seek revenge after last year’s second place finish behind Exeter in the New England championships. Coach Paul Murphy said, “It looks like we’re one of the top two teams in the league this year. Exeter graduated a lot of seniors last year, so we’re hoping it will be our year to finish on top!” The domination in the Choate meet portrayed Andover as a championship team. In the first event of the meet, the 200 meter medley relay, Theresa Faller ’11, Lydia Azaret ’12, Julia Torabi ’12 and Zhao took a second place finish with a time of 2:11.42, followed closely by Emily McKinnon ’13, Emily Timm ’12, Samantha Martinez ’13 and Lexi Moroney ’11, who finished third with a time of 2:16.11. Following the impressive opening event, Julia Smachlo ’13 swam to victory in the 200 meter freestyle with a time of 2:15.50. Lucy Frey ’13 and Kristen Faulkner ’11 completed the sweep, finishing second and third with times of 2:20.98 and 2:21.10, respectively. The girls also stole the top three places in the 50 meter freestyle with Zhao finishing first with a time of 27.96. Katie Fanikos ‘11 and Moroney ?nished second and third respectively. Following the two impressive sweeps, Kendall Macrae won the diving competition with a 258.80, only four points ahead of her sister Lilybet Macrae ’13 who finished third. Whitney Glick ’11 took fourth with a 152.75. After the diving competition, Andover continued to dominate. In the 100 meter butter?y, Julia Torabi ’12 ?nished second with a time of 1:11.33, while Molly Levene ’12 ?nished fourth with a time of 1:15.20, and Hannah McGrath ’11 followed quickly in ?fth with a 1:16.51. Zhao then won her second event of the meet with a 1:01.12 in the 100 meter freestyle. Hailey Novis ’13 posted a third place finish with a time of 1:03.97, while Moroney hit the wall fourth in 1:05.59. Smachlo also won a second event, pulling in first with a 4:42.20 in the 400 meter freestyle. Novis, Levene, Fanikos and Moroney then won the 200 meter freestyle relay, followed closely by Timm, Kerry Lanzo ’11, Maggie Shoemaker ’12, and McKinnon to give Andover a one-two finish. After Faller’s 1:09.57 took first in the 100 meter backstroke, Lydia Azaret ’12 hit the wall first in 1:27.08 in the 100 meter breaststroke to round out an impressive win for the girls. Captain Kristen Faulkner ’11 said, “It was the ?rst meet of the season, so of course not everyone performed at their optimum speed; however, everyone did well, which is a good sign. We mixed around the relays a bit to get a feel for different girls swimming different events. What’s great about our team is that we have a lot of depth, which makes us standout from the other schools’ swim teams.” Coach Murphy said, “We had a great ?rst meet of the season. The ?rst meet is always a little bit of seeing who’s in shape and who needs a little bit of work, but people had a really good meet.”
