Girls Swimming Sports Winter Sports

Girls Swimming Edges Exeter to Claim Victory

In a wire-to-wire race, Allyson Ty ’18 blazed past her opponents to clinch first in the 100-Yard Backstroke for Andover Girls Swimming & Diving in an Andover/Exeter meet record of 58.06 seconds. Andover triumphed over its archrival Phillips Exeter Academy 96-90 last weekend to close out its regular season with a league record of 5-2.

Allyson Ty wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We knew it was going to be a close meet against Exeter, but we were determined to swim our best since it was our last meet before championships. The team was very encouraging and supportive. Each swim was so exciting to watch, especially when one of our swimmers out-touched a swimmer of the other school.”

The meet was defined by several Season and Personal Records for many of Andover’s swimmers. In the 100-Yard Breaststroke, newcomer Kathleen Ty ’19 posted a season-best time of 1:13.52 minutes for first place and Emma Chatson ’18 took fourth in a season-best time of 1:16.80 minutes.

Co-Captain Elizabeth Duserick ’16 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “My favorite event to watch was the 100-Yard Breaststroke. Our top breaststroker came down with a fever that morning and couldn’t race, but our remaining two breaststrokers rose to the challenge and pulled off two phenomenal performances, earning us some crucial points at the end of the meet and season-bests for the both of them.”

In the first event of the meet, the relay team of Emma Donchi ’18, Elizabeth Tran ’19, Sasha Newton ’16 and Allyson Ty posted an impressive time of 1:53.01 minutes in the 200-Yard Medley Relay to snag first place.

In the 200-Yard Individual Medley, Tran and Donchi produced strong results for Andover with first and second place finishes in 2:14.80 minutes and 2:17.39 minutes, respectively.

Ashley Teo ’17, Sarah Zhao ’18 and Katherine Sweetser ’17 swept the 100-Yard Butterfly in first, second and third place finishes with times of 1:02.01, 1:02.61 and 1:02.71 minutes, respectively.

Reflecting on the meet, Head Coach Paul Murphy said, “The team was simply amazing. They supported each other in ways that brought out their best selves. Andover/Exeter is always a unique meet. [There are] lots of surprises, and this year was no different. [Exeter] swam well and we just happened to swim a bit better.”

Andover now looks ahead to the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (Nepsac) Girls Division-I Swimming Championships in two weeks at Deerfield.

Teo wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “New Englands are two weeks away and we are starting to taper. I believe that the team has put in all the hard work required and from now on out, it will just be resting and focusing on minor techniques during practice. I’m confident that the team will step up and perform at its peak. I’m excited to see how we perform for New Englands.”