For the tenth time in a row, Boys Swimming & Diving has brought home the NEPSAC Division I trophy, extending a streak that started in 2017. To cap off its decade of dominance, 88% of the team’s individual swims resulted in a personal best, one of the program’s highest marks in history.
As a Senior entering his last season, Eric Nie ’26 focused more on enjoying the moment. He reflected on the meet as a whole, expressing melancholy at the thought of his dwindling time on the team.
“It’s the last time I’m ever going to be representing Andover, [so] it’s definitely a lot more exciting than usual. I was just trying to have fun. Don’t focus on the results too much. And I think that actually worked out really well. It definitely met my expectations. We all did good, especially the Seniors. I’m really proud of the best times that I got, how my teammates did, as well [as] the best times they got. At the end, when we won our tenth consecutive championship, jumping into the pool together was definitely special,” said Nie.
In his last meet ever, Eric achieved a personal best in the 100-Yard Breaststroke with a time of 57.83. Fellow breaststroker and Co-Captain Ethan Zhu ’26 also had a new personal best of 57.36. Both were Futures cuts, which is a significant swimming milestone.
Nie added, “I’m super proud that [Ethan] dropped, especially in his last event, the 100[-Yard] Breaststroke. He dropped like 0.5 seconds, which is really impressive. I’m really proud of how he’s led the team this entire season.”
Lincoln Tomlinson ’27 won the Babcock Award, given to the most outstanding male swimmer of the meet. It was attributed to his record-breaking swims in the 100-Yard Butterfly, the 100-Yard Freestyle, and the 400 and 200-Yard Freestyle Relays. The 400-Yard freestyle relay was a meet record, while the 200-Yard Freestyle relay was a meet, school, pool, and New England record.
“Lincoln Tomlinson almost broke the school record in the 100-Yard Butterfly. He still got the Upper record. I was also super excited about his 100 [yard] freestyle. When he set the school record, it was really exciting to cheer for him. I’m excited for what he’s going to do in the future,” said Nie.
One of Andover’s most dominant events was the 50-yard freestyle, where Jay Wei ’27, Cale Barker ’28, and Nick Koura ’26 finished first, second, and eighth, respectively. Wei and Barker also found success in other events, as according to Tomlinson, Wei split 19.97 on the 200-Yard Freestyle relay while Barker claimed third in the 100-Yard Butterfly.
“Jay might be the first person in Andover history to ever go sub 20 [seconds] in a 50[-Yard] Freestyle, either off a relay start or a flat start. That was super impressive and a great way to end Saturday, which was the first day. I would also like to shout out Cale Barker for going 49 [seconds in the 100-Yard Butterfly] for the first time in his life, alongside me. It was fantastic. I was very proud of him. You could see the hard work that I put in over the course of the season shine at this meeting,” said Tomlinson.
The team’s success over the past decade was a combined effort from both coaches and athletes. Simba Xiong ’28 elaborated on what the team did to set itself up for success.
“We have been showing up to practice almost every single day, including Saturday mornings, where we have some demonically hard sets such as the lactate set, the Super 100s, or the team-of-one. The lactate set is where you sprint 100 [yards], but you repeat that six times, which is very hard. But [all that work] really paid off in the end, since everyone achieved their personal bests. I would also say our training method is pretty scientific, especially the taper at the end. It really helped us to relax, and also to try to get the rest that we deserve,” said Xiong.
More importantly, Xiong explained how the team’s success was built on its community and values. While good recruiting was certainly helpful, it was the fostering of a hardworking culture that helped swimmers flourish.
“The most direct reason is that many swimmers come here very fast, so with extra work, they become even faster. But the second, more important reason is the mentality. Every swimmer in the team really wants to improve, so they put in the effort to achieve that. And this applies to everyone, no matter how fast they are. We even see [that in] many of the freshmen, even though they’re slightly younger. They’re actually really mature and they know what they want; they show up to all the open swims and Saturday morning practices on time,” said Xiong.
