Breaking open its winter season, Andover Boys Swimming and Diving swam towards a nail-biting 95-91 in-league victory over a dominant Suffield last Saturday. Andover competed in a dual meet, swimming against Suffield and Peddie. Andover fell to powerhouse Peddie by a landslide of 60-120.
Fortunately, the loss against Peddie will not count toward Andover’s season record, because Peddie is not a member of the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) league.
Last season, Suffield handed Andover a loss of 84-101. Andover’s win last weekend marked significant improvement and boosted it to a 1-0 record.
To kick off a dominant start, Richard Zhong ’17, Jack Warden ’19 and Christian Alberga ’17 aided Co-Captain Darren Ty ’16 in capturing a third place finish in the 200-Yard Medley Relay with a time of 1:40.05.
Ty also earned a hard-fought third place in the 200-Yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:00.58, with newcomer Warden right on his heels at 2:05.58. Displaying his versatility, Ty rounded out the top three in the 100-Yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:00.32.
Although no individual victories were won over either Suffield or Peddie, Andover was able to topple Suffield through teamwork and strategy.
“Ultimately we beat Suffield through depth. We had a lot of depth in the team and we put together a good meet considering we only had a few days of practice beforehand,” wrote Nicholas Isenhower ’18 in an email to The Phillipian.
Before the diving break, Alberga displayed his immense speed in the 50-Yard Freestyle, his signature event, with a time of 22.12 to clinch a third place finish. Alberga also finished third in the 100-Yard Freestyle with a time of 48.88, just over one second from his personal record.
Veteran diver Jack Belluche ’16 scored 197.65 points for Andover, taking first place with a massive thirty point gap. Matt Grottkau ’17 placed third with 149.90 points, and Robert DeLaus ’16 took sixth place with 134.40 points.
After diving, Warden furthered Andover’s lead over Suffield in the 100-Yard Butterfly, placing third with a blazing time of 55.78. Warden also accompanied Thomas Choi ’16, Marcello Rossi ’16 and Nick Faulkner ’16 in taking third in the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:32.55.
In the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay, Rossi, Isenhower, Ty and Alberga sprinted to a combined time of 3:17.94, beating out Suffield for the second place finish in the dual meet.
Attributing the team’s success to the planning of Head Coach David Fox, Warden said, “The main thing that stood out was our execution of events. Coach Fox was strategic in arranging the events so that our team could score the maximum amount of points possible. This was extremely extraordinary since this was the first meet of the season with only three days of training and evaluation for the coaches.”
Andover Boys Swimming welcomes Choate on January 9, looking to lap the competition.
