Winter Term, Andover Girls Swimming & Diving finished with a win against rival Phillips Exeter Academy, maintaining an undefeated record in New England, and finished second place at the Nepsac Division I championships with 275 points.
On February 24, Andover secured a decisive win over Exeter. The final score of 111-75 marked Andover’s sixth win over Exeter in the last seven years.
Early in the meet, Liz Tran ’19, Graeleigh Jones ’21, and Co-Captain Emma Donchi ’18 swam 2:14.14, 2:16.69, and 2:17.85 to place first, second, and third respectively in the 200-Yard Individual Medley (IM) to place Andover in an early lead. In similar fashion, divers Reese Pelletier ’20, Claire Davis ’20, and Ora Cullen ’19 scored 258.6, 234.8, and 220.5 points, respectively, for another one-two-three win for Andover, further solidifying Andover’s lead.
In the end, Andover made a statement going into the Nepsac competition, going onetwo-three in four out of nine individual events: the 200-Yard IM, One-Meter Diving, 500- Yard Freestyle, and the 100-Yard Breaststroke.
Just a few days after the meet against Exeter, the diving team travelled to Deerfield to compete at the New England Diving Championships (New Englands). Despite being right in the middle of finals week, Andover displayed great persistence.
Pelletier placed fourth with 388.15 points, Davis placed 13th with 329.45 points, Cullen placed 18th with 216.15 points, and Emelie Eldracher ’18 placed 23rd with 120.75 points. Pelletier and Davis were finalists and together achieved 19 team points for Andover.
Exactly a week after the Andover/Exeter dual meet, Andover returned to Exeter to compete against 11 other teams. Building off the divers’ success, the team continued to excel in their last meet of the season, and for the Seniors, their last meet with Andover. In the end, Andover Girls Swimming & Diving placed second out of 12 teams.
According to Hailey Wadell ’21, New Englands was the team’s biggest win of the season, despite coming in second place.
Wadell said, “I think the biggest win of the season was coming in second in New Englands. We had worked hard in the weeks before, so we were put into a position where we could all do our best. The energy was really high going into the meet, and it definitely carried us through the day. We haven’t placed this high in New England’s in a while, coming in fourth and fifth a few times. Second was a big accomplishment for the team and was a great way to end the season.”
According to Donchi, the final championship was the final place to show off a whole season’s worth of hard work, and a nice culmination of everything the team has worked for.
Donchi said, “It was gratifying to see a season’s worth of hard work pay off, and it was really fun to cheer on teammates and support each other at our final meet.”
