Motivated by the roaring cheers from the crowd at home on Saturday, Andover Girls Swimming zoomed through the water to close out a decisive 107-78 win over Exeter. With this victory, Andover is riding high on a four game winning streak.
The team now holds a record of 4-3, turning around its rocky 0-3 opening to the season.
During the meet, many swimmers hit personal records, and 14 set their best times this season, illustrating the success of the team’s hard work.
Co-Captain Elizabeth Duserick ’16 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “The swims that happened at Exeter were really promising for the end of our season. Once we taper down, we should see some really fast times at New Englands”.
Andover racked up ten first- place finishes, accounting for 66 of the teams 107 points.
“I was really proud of the win this weekend because it truly was a team effort. Everyone did their part in contributing to our victory,” said Duserick.
The team has consistently excelled at relays throughout the season, and Saturday was no exception. Andover opened the meet with the 200-Yard Medley. The relay, made up of Allyson Ty ’18, Yifei Wu ’17, Duserick and Emma Donchi ’18, led the pack, finishing first with a time of 1:56.05.
In an email to The Phillipian, Wu wrote, “My strength was my breaststroke, especially in the 200-Yard Medley Relay. The girl from Exeter was very fast and she was my main challenge in the relay, to not lose the lead.”
Another pivotal moment in the meet was the 500-Yard Freestyle. Miranda An ’15 and her competitor were head-to-head the whole race up until the end when she was able to accelerate and beat out Exeter to the wall with a time of 1:59.87, her best of the season.
The growing confidence within the team as it lapped Exeter empowered individuals to swim even faster in their respective heats.
Jess Gearan ’18 in an email to The Phillipian, “I was confident that our team could work together and beat Exeter. Exeter did have some very fast sprinters, so it was a challenge to race them. The whole team is super excited that we beat Exeter, so we are full [of] energy and ready to swim our fastest at New Englands.” One of the challenges that the team faced was its lack of divers in comparison to Exeter. Competing for Andover was the lone diver, Emilie Eldracher ’18, who dove for a fourth place score of 136.45.
In an email to The Phillipian, fellow teammate and swimmer Juliette Farmer ’18 wrote, “Having fewer divers than Exeter was definitely a challenge, but we managed to overcome it to win the meet.”
The team will face a tough stretch ahead. Even though its regular season is over, Andover will have to prepare to race against some of its toughest opponents in the weeks to come.
Duserick said, “Now we know that Suffield and Choate are going to be our biggest competitors at New Englands.”
The team is motivated to work even harder after its winning streak and avenge its prior losses to Suffield and Choate. Andover will race next at Exeter on March 7 and 8 for the Division I New England Championships.
