Co-Captain Arnold Su ’20 out-touched Co-Captain Sam Donchi ’20 by 0.62 seconds during the 100 Meter Butterfly.
Marcus Lee ’21 placed first for a season best in the 100 Freestyle with the time of 47.25 seconds. Lee’s hard work in addition to the 32 other season and personal best records set by Andover Boys Swim & Dive assisted the team in its win against Deerfield with the score 140-44 on Saturday, maintaining an undefeated record.
According to Ralph Lam ’22, Andover stood out during this past weekend’s meet because of the new records set by numerous swimmers on the team.
Lam said, “This meet was special because we’ve had more in-season and all-time bests. I know that Hank Yang [’22] and Brendon Fang [’22] went best times this meet. That’s just an expression of the hard work that they’ve put in. The meet was a great indicator for what we will achieve at Easterns. I think that everyone performed really well and that overall the team was looking really strong.”
Andover hopes to use Saturday’s meet as an example for what the team must do to achieve its optimal outcome at Easterns, according to Yang.
“All the races were pretty memorable, and we can use all of them as good examples to learn from them and prepare for our championships. We have a really strong and fast group of swimmers, but I think the most important thing is that we [supported] each other and we didn’t let anything distract us. We didn’t worry about the outcome of our races. We just went in and did our best and tried to swim fast. The fact that we were able to focus on our own swims and not get distracted by anything is what really helped us in doing well at Deerfield,” said Yang.
Yang continued, “Every meet is kind of a challenge because it’s all a rehearsal for our eventual championships, so going in and being able to stay focused and swim fast is always a challenge. There weren’t any surprises at Deerfield, though. The way we approached the meet was a bit different because when you have a home meet, you have your home crowd. It’s fun to swim in front of people you know. Going into a place where people are not exactly cheering for you, it’s a little bit different, but I think that just brings our team closer to each other because it’s just you and your teammates.”
The team anticipates a slight shift in its usual practice routine to prepare for Easterns, according to Trey Wolfe ’23 and Yang.
Wolfe said, “Right now the focus is just Easterns. I feel like we’ve been doing a great job preparing for Easterns. I speak for everyone saying that we would all follow [Head Coach David Fox] to the end of the earth. We have a lot of trust in him, and a lot of the older guys on the team say that what they’ve done that has worked in the past is going to work now. The team has a lot of trust in our coaches, and we just need to do what they put in front of us. Right now moving into taper season, it’s going to be a lot of speed work. We’re just trying to get up and go, and that way we’ll be ready to race at Easterns.”
“These two weeks will definitely be focusing on bringing our volume down and but keeping our intensity up. We’ll definitely be more aware of how we sleep, when we sleep, what we eat to make sure we are fully equipped to swim fast when it comes to it next week,” added Yang.
Andover will compete at Easterns in two weeks.
Editor’s Note: Ralph Lam ’22 is a Video Editor for The Phillipian.
