Sports

Swimmers Adjust to Longer Pools; Andover Divers Display Dexterity

This past Saturday, Andover Girls Swimming defeated Choate 100-84 and simultaneously broke two New England meter records in its first meet of the season.

Amy Zhao ’14 dominated in the 50 Free, breaking both Choate’s pool record and the New England record with a time of 26.45, and she also helped Andover obtain another victory in the 400 Free Relay.

Zhao, Hailey Novis ’13, Kaitlin Simpson ’14 and Danielle Liu ’14 shattered the standing record for the 400 Free Relay with a time of 4:03.53.

Qiqi Ren ’15 said, “We did well for the beginning of the season because we’ve been training hard since before break. I think we can improve a ton by the end of the season though.”

Although Choate’s pool is in meters rather than yards and is therefore 10 percent longer than the pool Andover trains in, Andover’s swimmers adjusted to the longer distances and managed to establish a lead from the start.

In the first race of the day, the 200 Medley Relay, Andover came away with the win. Lauren Conte ’14, Ren, Samantha Martinez ’13 and Zhao defeated the Choate team by just two hundredths of a second with a final time of 2:11.48.

Andover placed first, second and fourth in the second race, the 200 Free. Simpson won with 2:10.59 and was followed by Julia Smachlo ’13. Novis took fourth place with 2:19.51.

The team won again in the 200 IM when Liu finished first with a time of 2:27.21.

The Diving team also had a strong start to the start to the season, as Captain Lilybet MacRae ’13 emerged victorious with a score of 249.25. Sabrina Rivers ’14 placed third and Catherine Wang ’14 placed fifth.

A highlight of the meet on Saturday was when Liu, Ren, Simpson and Novis almost beat the New England Record in the 200 Free Relay with a time of 1:53.87.

Zhao brought Andover yet another win in the 100 Butterfly with a time of 1:05.37.

Simpson won the 100 Free in 59.75 seconds, and Elizabeth Duserick ’16 finished third with a time of 1:05.18.

Liu and Smachlo took first and second in the 400 Free with times of 4:26.06 and 4:35.67 respectively.

Duserick ’16 said, “Yesterday was great because some swimmers got best times, which is really good especially because Choate was only the first meet of the season.”

In the 100 Breast, Captain Lucy Frey ’13 placed second with a time of 1:23.29 and Ren placed third with a time of 1:23.98.

Frey said, “Our strengths this season are the team’s depth. We have many swimmers who can swim and place in multiple events, but one of our greatest strengths is our ability to push one another in practice and support and cheer for one another in meets. We are a team that prides ourselves on being close in and out of the pool.”

Andover has started out strong and hopes to carry its winning momentum to its next meet this Saturday against Loomis at home.