Each of the Uppers on the swim team walked down the pool deck and handed each Senior a rose to honor their last home meet of the season. The Andover Girls Swimming and Diving team went on to beat Hopkins 99-77 for its fifth win of the year. The win propelled Andover’s record to 5-1, and an undefeated 5-0 in-league record.
As it was the Seniors’ last home meet of their careers, the girls were motivated to swim especially fast, according to Emma Donchi ’18 and Emily Warren ’21.
Donchi said, “A highlight of the meet for me was seeing everyone cheering for each other during races. It is really nice to see my teammates supporting one another, and they did a wonderful job of cheering each other on this weekend.”
Warren added, “Being the last Senior home meet, everyone spent every minute of the meet supporting and cheering each other on. Each person racing would have two to three people at the end of their lane screaming their names and hollering loudly to encourage them to go faster. It was also super fun to see all the seniors receive their gifts and posters because they worked so hard to get where they are.”
Andover got off to a good start, sweeping the top three places in both the 200-Yard Freestyle and the 200-Yard Individual Medley. Jess Gearan ’18 ranked first place in the 200-Yard Freestyle with a time of 2:00.70 minutes while Elizabeth Tran ’19 won the 200-Yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:18.83 minutes. Abby Ryan ’21 continued the team’s momentum with a win in the 50-Yard Freestyle with a time of 26.10, compared to second-place’s 27.20.
In diving, Reese Pelletier ’20, Ora Cullen ’19, and Claire Davis ’20 scored 262.95, 232.30, and 212.65 points respectively to claim the top three places.
Andover continued to dominate after the diving, achieving first, second, and third in the 100-Yard Freestyle and 500-Yard Freestyle to push them over the 93-points necessary to seal the win.
By the 200-Yard Freestyle relay, Andover had scored enough points to swim the rest of the meet as non-scoring exhibition swimmers. Even on exhibition, Andover continued to swim fast for the remainder of the meet.
Andover has three large consecutive meets for the remainder of the season: the Eastern Championships in Lancaster, Pa., a dual meet against rival Phillips Exeter Academy, and the Nepsac. Only a select group of swimmers will travel to Lancaster, Pa., for Easterns.
According to Gearan, the team is working hard to prepare for the final meets of the season.
Gearan said, “Since our championship meets are quickly approaching, we are starting to taper, or rest, for our races. We are doing less yardage and more speed, starts, and turn work at practice. With all of the season’s hard training behind us, the girls are super excited to race.”
