Co-Captain Tim Wynter ’14 coasted to the wall in 49.08 seconds to break a 17-year-old 49.14-second pool record in the 100-Yard Backstroke. The fastest backstroker in 114 years of Eastern Interscholastic Championships history, Wynter currently holds the New England record of 49.06 seconds as well.
“Breaking the meet record felt great. It was a good race for me, but I still want to improve on it this coming weekend at New Englands. I think that I can swim faster,” said Wynter.
This was one of Andover’s numerous record-breaking performances over the course of the weekend. Many swimmers also set personal and season best times at the meet.
For the second year in a row, Andover Boys Swimming and Diving finished in fourth place out of 15 teams at the Eastern Championships. This year, with a score of 292 points, the team finished a mere two points shy of third-place team Malvern Prep.
“The meet was much more competitive, and there was more depth of swimmers this year than last year. Coming in fourth place felt amazing, and everyone was really happy with our results,” said Marcello Rossi ’16. Rossi placed 17th in the 500-Yard Freestyle with a personal best time of 4:47.64.
Rossi was also a member of the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay team that broke the school record and New England record set by Exeter in 2012. Co-Captain Joe Faller ’14, Wynter and Michael Camarda ’14 joined Rossi in the relay victory.
Camarda set a new school record in the 50-Yard Freestyle with a time of 21.22 seconds.
Wynter, Scott Simpson ’14, Faller and Camarda broke the New England record by over two seconds and the school record in the 200-Yard Medley Relay with an impressive time of 1:31.86.
In the diving competition, which included 33 divers, Graham Johns ’14 finished in 12th place, Jack Belluche ’16 finished in 14th place and Kade Call ’14 finished in 17th place.
Andover will swim at the New England Championships this upcoming weekend at Hotchkiss. Andover did not compete at New Englands last year. The team, however, captured the New England Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
In preparation for New Englands, the
swimmers will work individually on their turns and starts. As a team, Andover is aspiring to accomplish 100 percent personal best times and to improve upon its already record-breaking relay performances.
“Every single member of the team has been working extremely hard this season. We have been killing ourselves everyday at practice for months, and it has all been leading up to these two Championship meets,” said Faller. “All of our practices and dual meets, everything that we have done so far this season, has been in preparation for these two meets. We really want to come home with first place this weekend.”
