In its first home meet of the season, Andover dismantled Loomis Chaffee 118-65 after winning every individual event and two of the three relays. The win brought Andover’s record to 2-2 for the season.
Despite coming from a convincing win at Choate last weekend, Andover knew defeating Loomis would be a challenge.
In an email to The Phillipian, veteran Darren Ty ’16 wrote, “After a week of tough practices, I believe we were ready to show off all our hard work. Being the first [home] meet of the season, we were ready to swim hard and give it our best. Loomis is a strong team, [as] they have a lot of depth in their line-up.”
Andover triumphed in two relays — the 200-Yard Medley and the 400-Yard Freestyle. Co-Captains Aaron Teo ’15 and Alex Li ’15, Christian Alberga ’17 and Ty won the medley in 1:39.10, while Marcello Rossi ’16, Li, Teo and Alberga won the 400-Yard Freestyle.
Rossi continued his streak by clinching two individual wins in the 200-Yard Freestyle in 1:48.49 and the 500-Yard Freestyle in 4:56.05. Ty also won two events, the 200-Yard Individual Medley in 2:00.81 and 100-Yard Freestyle in 48.82. Alberga, Li and Teo continued to excel by winning the 50-Yard Freestyle in 22.21, the 100-Yard Fly in 54.56 and the Breaststroke in 1:00.97, respectively.
Jack Belluche ’16 maintained his undefeated season-record in Diving with a score of 225.50. Richard Zhong ’17 won the 100-Yard Backstroke in 58.00.
Along with a string of individual victories, some swimmers set personal records at the meet. Nick Faulkner ’16 finished in 23.89 in the 50-Yard Freestyle Relay, and Ty finished in 48.82 in the 100-Yard Freestyle.
Daniel Tran ’17 recorded personal bests in the 200-Yard Freestyle in 1:55.15 and the 500-Yard Freestyle in 5:13.01. Ty topped the depth chart in the 50-Yard Backstroke in 25.63. Nate Smith ’18 improved in the same event with a time of 27.77, as well as in the 100-Yard Backstroke in 1:00.29. Matthew Grottkau ’17 got his best Diving result this season with 166.40 points.
Faulkner wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “I think we are a very deep team with lots of talented swimmers in different events. Our relays were definitely a strong point because they demonstrate how deep we are. The fact that we had four different swimmers come first in [multiple] events is also huge.”
While Andover physically dominates in the pool, the team’s spirit and camaraderie continues to grow as the season goes on.
Ty said, “Being around mid-season, I think we are continuing to really come together as a team. I would say that, [by continuing this trend], we can really help each other improve a great deal by the time championships come by – both in and out of the pool.”
Andover will travel to Northfield Mount Hermon this weekend to try to extend its winning streak to three games.
