Traveling to Suffield Academy to compete in its annual double dual-meet against Suffield and Peddie School, Andover Girls Swimming & Diving beat Peddie 102-81 and lost to Suffield 113-73, bringing its record to 2-2.
The meet started off strong with a second place finish for Andover in the 200-Yard Medley Relay, in which Emma Donchi ’18, Allyson Ty ’18, Grace Hitchcock ’20, and Elizabeth Tran ’19 finished with a time of 1:50.00 minutes. In the first individual event of the meet, the 200-Yard Freestyle, Co-Captain Katherine Sweetser ’17 finished second with a time of 2:01.31 minutes.
Sweetser said, “The team was excited and focused going into the meet against Suffield and Peddie. We made it our priority to have fun and race fast and that’s what we did. The team’s positive atmosphere throughout the meet was evident in the way the girls cheered each other on and in the girls’ attitudes as they prepared for races.”
Allyson Ty said, “Many of us swam and trained over break, so going into the meet, we felt relatively prepared. During the one week before the meet, we got in as much training as we could.”
This confidence played a large role in the latter half of the meet, with an individual event win from Tran in the 500-Yard Freestyle in a time of 5:23.74 minutes.
Tran said, “One of the team’s main focuses at the meet was to work on [turns] and our relay starts. We had worked on them in practice and they definitely paid off at the meet.”
In the 100-Yard Backstroke, Allyson Ty finished in second place with a time of 58.75 seconds, followed by Gearan in fifth place with a time of 1:04.10 minutes. In the closing individual event of the competition, the 100-Yard Breaststroke, Kathleen Ty ’19 finished in fourth place with a time of 1:14.60.
Additionally, Andover’s relay team of Jess Gearan ’18, Sweetser, Donchi, and Tran finished off the meet strong with a second place finish in the 400-Yard Freestyle with split times of 55.70, 56.37, 57.69, and 55.75 seconds, respectively.
Gearan said, “Our team was a little nervous going into the meet because we knew Suffield and Peddie are very good teams. But over the course of the meet we had a lot of great swims which helped us gain confidence and end on a great note.”
The team will prepare this week for its dual meet against Northfield Mount Hermon and Deerfield.
Donchi said, “This coming week, we plan to continue working on our flip turns and also work to develop our freestyle technique. [Head Coach Paul Murphy ’84] has a couple of great freestyle drills and we make an effort to practice at least one of them per day. For the rest of the season we plan to focus on building endurance while maintaining good technique.”
