Narrowly edging out his closest competitor by only half a second, Co-Captain Marcello Rossi ’16 clinched a first-place finish with a time of 1:58.33 minutes in the match against Loomis Chaffee. Rossi’s victory propelled Andover’s momentum early in the meet to defeat Loomis in all events except for two. Andover Boys Swimming & Diving claimed a 104.5-81.5 win on Saturday, extending its undefeated record to 3-0.
Although the pool at Loomis is measured in meters – as opposed to yards – and is therefore slightly longer, several Andover swimmers achieved season-best times and improved on their racing strategies.
Starting the meet with consecutive victories for Andover, Rossi, Co-Captain Darren Ty ’16 and veteran sprinter Christian Alberga ’17 raced to impressive first place finishes in each of their individual events.
Nicholas Isenhower ’18 said, “We took the lead with some wins by Marcello and Darren in the [200-Meter Freestyle] and the [200-Meter Individual Medley], respectively, and that got the momentum rolling. From that point on, we kept at it and secured our win with big points from the later relays. It was fun to swim a meter meet and get some fresh meter times.”
Rossi took a first-place finish in the 100-Meter Butterfly by an impressive three-second margin. Ty won the 200-Meter Individual Medley with a time of 2:13.66 minutes, outpacing the closest competitor by seven seconds. In the 100-Meter Breaststroke, Ty took first place by a narrow victory with a time of 1:07.23.
Alberga raced the 50-Meter Freestyle with a time of 24.47 seconds to claim first place. In the 100-Meter Freestyle, Alberga won again by over a full second with a time of 53.92 seconds.
Ty wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “The meet was closer than we expected, but we were glad to come out on top. We knew we couldn’t underestimate them so we had to work to finish before Loomis did. Again, we really relied on our depth to help us out in the end. Right now, we look to continue the hard work in our training to help us get ready for future meets.”
Divers Jack Belluche ’16, Matt Grottkau ’17 and Robert DeLaus ’16 scored points for Andover with second, third and fourth place finishes, respectively. Belluche scored 201.10 points, Grottkau came close with 190.90 points and DeLaus rounded out the rankings with 157.05 points.
Andover found success in the relays after the diving break. In the 200-Meter Freestyle Relay, Andover raced to a tight win with Rossi, Ty, Alberga and Nick Faulkner ’16, finishing in a time of 1:40.07 minutes. Isenhower, Rossi, Alberga and Thomas Choi ’16 cruised to an easy victory in the 400-Meter Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:39.60 minutes.
Alberga said, “We were very confident going into the meet against Loomis, even though we have been training very hard this past week. Loomis’s pool is in meters and it is the only time that we race in it all season so we were less focused on the times and more on the execution of each of our races. Many of the guys are proud of their times. We are looking forward to another week of hard training and [Northfield Mount Hermon] at home next weekend.”
Andover looks to continue its undefeated streak against NMH this Saturday.
