Competitors representing Andover at Easterns pose for a photo.
Boys Swimming & Diving competed at the Eastern Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championship (Easterns) in Lancaster, Pennsylvania this weekend, facing some of the strongest competitors of the season. Despite the tough meet, the team delivered a strong performance, finishing second in the boys division behind Mercersberg Academy. Although the team wasn’t able to repeat for the fourth year in-a-row win, it set personal bests across the board and broke the 200 freestyle relay school record.
At Easterns, the team performed with composure thanks to ample preparation from accumulated weeks of training beforehand. Owen Huang ’27 described the team’s mentality heading in.
“Easterns is our biggest meet of the season. This was my first time going to Easterns. Everyone on the team was super excited, but at the same time, we knew we were going to have really tough competition going in. We knew we would have to do a lot of really solid work and race really well in order to overcome that,” said Huang.
Despite placing second, the team’s performance reflected its depth and consistency across events as most swimmers swam personal bests in their respective races. According to Head Coach David Fox, its performance this year was historically great.
“Ultimately, we didn’t get the result we wanted, but we did really well overall. Coach Fox told us that we raced really well as a team. We broke several records, including the 200 free relay record with Lincoln [Tomlinson ’27], Jay [Wei ’27], Cale [Barker ’28], and Oliver [Stabach ’26]. The vast majority of our swimmers swam personal best times in their events,” said Huang.
This year, the team entered a rebuilding phase after graduating several key swimmers from the class of 2025. Ryan Loh ’28 expressed that Easterns was a test of the team’s ability to adapt and was also an opportunity for the younger members of the team to step up.
“It was a little bit challenging going into the meet because we lost a lot of really good swimmers from last year. But everyone went in hoping to swim as fast as possible, and we ended up doing pretty well. The younger swimmers on the team were able to step up really well. They were able to rise to the challenge and perform under pressure,” said Loh.
Reflecting his individual progress, Simba Xiong ’28 talked about his improvement from last season. He also highlighted standout performances from younger swimmers like Beckett Kavanagh ’29.
“I definitely improved a lot from last year. I made [the] C Final in both the 100[-Yard Freestyle] and the 200[-Yard Freestyle]. Even though I didn’t score a lot of points, I feel like I did my best and contributed [to] the team. As for the freshmen, a notable mention is Beckett. He had almost a 12-second drop in his 500[-Yard Freestyle] which is crazy, and he made [the] B Final as a freshman. He has a lot of potential in the future if he continues to work hard,” said Xiong.
The team now enters the final stretch of the season with Andover/Exeter (A/E) and New England Championships. It will focus on maintaining conditioning, unity, and finishing the season strong.
“After [the meet], we all hung out, played games together, and had a fun night. It really speaks to the kind of community that we have. Looking ahead, with A/E and New Englands coming up, the goal is just to keep improving and put in as much work as possible over the last two meets of the season,” said Huang.
Boys Swimming & Diving will host Exeter on Saturday.
