With a crucial meet hanging in the balance against Choate on Saturday, Marcello Rossi ’16, Thomas Choi ’16 and Daniel Tran ’17 swept the 400-Meter Freestyle and clinched the top three spots for Andover. This victory proved to be the turning point of the meet, as Andover went on to defeat Choate 107-78.
Heading into the meet with a record of 0-2, Andover was eager to claim its first win of the season.
“[Peddie and Suffield] were definitely tough losses, so I’d say the mentality going into Choate was that we wanted to go down there and prove that we are still a team to watch out for in New England,” said Tran in an email to The Phillipian.
Andover started the meet with a striking win in the 200-Meter Medley relay, with the team of Richard Zhong ’17, Co-Captains Aaron Teo ’15 and Alex Li ’15 and Christian Alberga ’17 finishing in 1:53.45.
Teo continued his strong streak by winning the 200-Meter Individual Medley in 2:16.72, while Rossi dominated the 200-Meter Freestyle with a time of 2:00.33. At the diving break, Andover led Choate by ten points, 36-26.
Jack Belluche ’16 won the diving event with 198.75 points. Afterwards, Darren Ty ’16 and Li nabbed the two top spots for the 100-Meter Butterfly. Choate managed to secure several victories in events such as the 100-Meter Freestyle, 200-Meter Freestyle and the 100-Meter Backstroke to whittle down Andover’s lead.
Teo and Ty broke Choate’s winning streak by achieving first and second place, respectively, in the 100-Meter Breaststroke. In the final race of the day, Choate rallied to win the 400-Meter Freestyle relay. However, Andover’s strong lead proved to be too much, and it walked away victorious, beating Choate by 29 points.
In an email to The Phillipian, Rossi wrote, “Choate is a tough opponent for Andover. Every year they get some very fast, new swimmers that surprise us. We were still able to maintain the lead with our new swimmers in the Classes of ’18 and ’17, who have been training really hard and performing very well.”
Although Andover pulled off quite the convincing win, the team knows it still needs to improve to maintain a winning streak.
Citing endurance as an area to improve in, Tran said, “I think we have to improve on our conditioning so that we are able to finish our races aggressively. We have to strategize and plan our races so that we finish ahead of the pack.”
One of Andover’s strengths, on the other hand, has been the strong mental and emotional bond between the members.
“[I love] how close the team has become in a matter of two weeks. I feel close with all of the Juniors and Lowers on the team, and that team bond will really help build our confidence moving into the future. The team spirit we have and the support we exhibit for each other will make us perform well up until New Englands,” said Rossi.
Looking to further improve its record Andover will host Loomis Chaffee on Saturday in its first home meet of the year.
