Andover Boys Swimming & Diving clinched first place in every single event in its away meet against Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) this past weekend, winning 87-69 to propel its overall season record to 4-1.
Rick Ono ’19 wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “Because NMH is not among our biggest competitors, the team was excited to try new events that they usually might not swim.”
Anthony Minickiello ’20 said, “The team’s attitude going into last weekend at NMH was good. We knew that we were only taking some of the team to NMH since they were not that strong of an opponent, but that it was still important for each of us to focus on racing hard and working on the little things as we head towards championship season.”
Andover shined in all of its relay events. In the 200-Yard Medley Relay, Richard Zhong ’17, Jonathan Xue ’18, Captain Christian Alberga ’17, and Dan Tran ’18 won the event, finishing with a time of 1:44.14 minutes. In the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay, Anthony Minickiello ’20, Jacob Hudgins ’19, Will Kantaros ’18, and Alberga placed first with a time of 1:35.68 minutes. In the final 400-Yard Freestyle Relay, Tran, Harvey Zheng ’19, Sam Donchi ’20, and Riku Tanaka ’20 finished first with a time of 3:28.39 minutes.
Andover also performed well in the individual Freestyle events. In the 500-Yard Freestyle, Tanaka placed first and Tran placed second with times of 5:06.47 minutes and 5:12.13 minutes, respectively. In the 200-Yard Freestyle, Tran finished first, while Ono placed second and Nate Smith ’18 placed third, with times of 1:54.74 minutes, 1:56.02 minutes, and 2:01.50 minutes, respectively.
Zheng said, “I think our team had a lot of energy. We cheered well and had a lot of enthusiasm, as the entire team would cheer whenever someone was racing. In our races, we also raced very well, especially for a mid-season meet.”
In the 100-Yard Butterfly, Donchi placed first with a time of 54.69 seconds. Alberga placed second with a time of 56.35 seconds, and Minickiello placed third with a time of 56.64 seconds. In the 100-Yard Backstroke, Donchi earned his second first place finish with a time of 58.03 seconds. Zheng placed second with a time of 58.59 seconds, while Smith placed third with a time of 1:01.01 minutes.
Looking ahead to the weekend, Alberga wrote in an email to The Phillipian, “We expect to have some strong competition both Friday and Saturday from St. John’s and Deerfield. We are still working towards championships at the end of the season, so we won’t attempt to specially prepare for these meets. I am looking forward to going after a few of the pool records this weekend as well.”
Andover has a home meet against St. John’s Prep on Friday, as well as a home meet against Deerfield on Saturday.
